Anxious, Worn Out, and With a Bad Concussion
by Sparky the Pixel
Summary: ...At least, that's how I spent my entire Cadet training to become a Shinra SOLDIER. It probably would have helped if I wasn't dressing as a boy the entire time, but whatever. I wouldn't have had it any other way. -Takes place before Crisis Core.
1. Foresight in Hindsight

Welcome to the story! Heh, this is exciting... Enjoy, everybody!

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

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1 - Foresight in Hindsight

I looked at a blue-haired girl called Sapphire. She looked back at me, blank. I blinked, and caught sight of her eyes opening when I looked again. I yawned, and Sapphire replicated the action.

I heaved a great breath as I stared at myself in the mirror of the bathroom of my flat, tilting my head every which way, narrowing my eyes and squinting at myself.

I simply could _not_ see it. Not a chance. I didn't see how.

Nope, there was no chance. I did not, no way, nu-uh, look like I could enter SOLDIER.

_Stupid dream_... Last night I dreamt of myself, in the middle of a room full of similarly-eager Cadets of Shinra, in front of us all a grinning SOLDIER talking to us. Perhaps most unbelievably was how I looked; clearly looking an awful lot more boyish, with a Cadet helmet firmly jammed down low on my head, and a bush of short, spiky blue hair sprouting from beneath - very much unlike my current long hair, a few strands brushing my right eye, but most of it long and wavy and all down my back to my hips.

And my dreams, well...

I wasn't sure if it was just my brain telling me I was unique, but my dreams had a habit, of, well...becoming reality. Not obviously, if I dreamt of chocobos riding humans, or something equally silly; but this was the second time I'd had a dream that resembled what my life could be like, and had that strange, mystical, believable quality to it.

A dream that, unlike most dreams (which I heard somewhere you forget 90% of 10 minutes after waking up in the morning) I remember completely, from start to end, down to every minute detail.

A dream that had me waking up the next morning completely full of life and ambition, completely filling my head and making sure I don't think of anything else; something I discovered was quite a problem, after stubbing my toe whilst getting dressed this morning, and pouring myself some tasty, sugar-filled cola into my cereal.

A dream that I knew had to come true, one way or another. I mean, I've had this one other time, two years ago; a dream depicting myself kissing my mother and father on their cheeks, picking up a bag filled with my stuff and stepping on a train to leave my loveable old hometown. I _did_ leave, and five hours later at a little cafe, I heard the news that the town had been completely destroyed and razed to the ground as a result of a Mako reactor meltdown, with no possibility of survival amongst anyone caught in the blast.

I cried, and cursed my strange ability, wondering why it would torture me so - but then realized that it had saved my life and profoundly forgave it. It hadn't happened since then, and quite frankly, I didn't fancy my chances against this unnatural force, making me do things I would never have done otherwise. Considering if I hadn't done that first one, I would have been killed, I wasn't about to back out of using my subconscious' advice...but it seemed ridiculous.

After all, joining Shinra as a wannabe SOLDIER, disguising myself as a boy, and more-than-likely not very convincingly...to me, that seemed like a sure-fire way to _get_ myself killed.

On the other hand, since leaving my old town, my life had been...well...I didn't really know how to put it, but I wasn't exactly 'careful' anymore. After my home was destroyed, I was hit quite suddenly - like an epiphany of some kind - that life truly was as short as everyone said it was. In my eyes, life was far too short to be spent worrying, or regretting, or thinking 'what if I had done that? Why didn't I give it a go?'

A number of people, I knew, they considered me selfish. In a way, I agreed with them; from then on I had decided I wanted to live life the way I wanted to, not the way other people believed I should. It had got me into trouble on numerous occasions, sure, and I had a slowly-developing habit of not taking certain things as seriously as I should, but I was content.

Still though, on my more sensitive days, seeing as it did get to me on occasion, I wondered if people would prefer me as a weepy depressed teenager. Being this impulsive and excitable was keeping me sane and happy, after surviving when everyone I knew on Gaia was killed in a short few hours. That sort of thing can get to a person. Still, I didn't think I was _selfish_, not extremely anyway.

And so, I decided that maybe, I could prove to these people that I am not selfish. And the perfect way to prove this theory had presented itself to me just now, in the form of a dream!

'_I'm going to join Shinra and become a SOLDIER while masquerading as a boy!_' I proclaimed to myself, in my head. '_Fighting for your country...well, that's just the opposite of selfish, isn't it?_'

Broken out of my thoughts, and noticing I was grinning at myself in my bathroom mirror, I charged down my narrow staircase in a rush to the door, as I had heard the bell being rung. I unlocked it and opened it, to stare into the face of a dark-haired, serious looking man, with a little bit of stubble on his chin and wearing a SOLDIER uniform.

Seeing the First Class SOLDIER right on my doorstep stirred a laugh somewhere in my chest, something I tried my best to ignore. He looked down at me - even with me standing on higher ground, I was still slightly shorter - and gave the smallest, tightest and _most_ professional smile I think I've seen, _ever_.

Failing to keep the excited, buzzing feeling in of making such an important decision just a minute before, I grinned to the SOLDIER so much my cheeks hurt slightly. "Hi there!" I greeted, "Can I help?"

I rested a hand on the door, as the SOLDIER's eyes glanced over my shoulder and behind me a moment before looking back to me with a somewhat more natural smile. "Hello, I am a SOLDIER Commander of the Shinra army. I was just wondering if there would be any men here interested in joining Shinra as a new Cadet, to advance in the army and to help us fight our enemies?" he responded, and I smiled discreetly. I liked this SOLDIER - he seemed pretty cool! With that sort of opening speech, it must've been hard for him to make it _not_ sound like it was learnt off a piece of paper!

Thanking Gaia for me inheriting my mother's sharp mind I pretended to think for a moment, and answered the Commander, "My twin brother talks about becoming a SOLDIER all the time." The moment I started talking it seemed like someone had flicked a switch in his head, because his eyes just lit up, letting me admire their pretty blue colour. "Mum and Dad used to train us a little, and he always wanted to do more with it," I continued to weave my story, imagining my brand new twin brother already.

The Commander was properly smiling now. "Is he of an appropriate age? To join as a Cadet he will need to be fourteen, and he will be able to take a test to advance into the army after sixteen," he informed, and I put a hand on my hip and tilted my head, for lack of anything better to do.

"Yup. Him and me both, we're fifteen and ten months," I answered him, and he nodded, his smile a little smaller.

I was about to question the SOLDIER on his surprising dip in enthusiasm, until he gestured me into the house, meaning to follow. I nodded and closed the door behind him, and he followed me into the kitchen, where I leant back against the worktop, my head tilted inquisitively.

"What's the issue?" I asked, trying to keep it light, despite the nature of what the Commander was asking. He examined me carefully, with a strange small hesitancy about him. Stood in the middle of the kitchen in the tensest stance I had seen in a long time made him look extremely out of place in my small home.

"Your parents, and you... You would get very worried for him, wouldn't you? We train Cadets to take part in SOLDIER to defend Shinra, I hope you don't end up despising Shinra if he is harmed," he spoke incredibly delicately, so as not to offend, but the only part that made me properly cringe were his first two words.

Then I realised, this guy would be my _twin brother_ - so, becoming increasingly grateful to my mother for what she taught me as I grew up, I cleared my throat and looked to the floor, holding my elbow. A few moments later I replied, "Yes, we'd worry for him, but he's wanted to do this since we were kids." I looked back up at him, putting on an expression of slight sensitivity (I wanted him to think I was strong, but still cared for this twin of mine) before shaking my head and turning on the kettle. "Being hurt is all a part of it, anyway," I continued, "I couldn't blame Shinra for that."

I turned back to the Commander, who still looked like he felt a little bad. "I want you to know, I'm not here to split up families. If anyone here gets upset with me, I'll leave," he explained, vaguely gesturing around the room, meaning the whole town.

I snorted internally. _Like the rural, soft-spoken people of Mideel would really tell the intimidating SOLDIER to leave_. I stayed silent as the dark-haired SOLDIER continued.

"I completely understand if you don't want your brother to join Shinra. I am obligated to find and recruit people who are able to fight for Shinra, and some people will have to make sacrifices; but if your or any of your family disagree and refuse then I'm not about to tell you you're wrong."

...I didn't really know what brought the speech on, considering I had already accepted the choice my 'brother' had made. Truthfully though, I did actually feel better. I didn't feel bad in the first place, but there was just something...reassuring about this SOLDIER. He definitely looked strong (those SOLDIER uniforms hid nothing of his powerful, well-toned body) and his words were so kind-hearted and genuinely caring, that joining SOLDIER seemed like it would save the world, and would help this guy personally - which I immediately felt was something I had to do.

Something slightly sceptical in me nattered in my ear, _why do you think this guy is here? The most charismatic SOLDIER will of COURSE be sent to round up recruits_.

I completely ignored it, in favour of sending the SOLDIER Commander a smile. "I get you, sir," I replied, and put a hand on my hip. "If my brother was uncertain about joining Shinra, I'd never let him - but he's one-hundred-percent. I was okay with him, so now, if anything, I'm all too happy for him to be joining."

He returned the smile, but as I turned to get out a few mugs for the recently-boiled kettle, in the reflection of the silver kettle, I could see his smile turn down, and his gaze retreat to the floor. I didn't completely understand, and I barely even knew the guy, but somehow the man still made me feel sympathy for him.

Me and the SOLDIER, Angeal as he had introduced himself, drank tea and talked for the guts of half an hour, and I found myself enjoying the SOLDIER's company - to my surprise, it was just as I expected. During the talk, and as a result of some awkward but intentional questions, I discovered that no, I would not be taken seriously if I fought to get into SOLDIER alongside my 'brother', and if I _were_ to masquerade as my 'twin brother' instead of him going, Angeal would be surprisingly fully supportive of me as the first male-masquerading female Cadet and SOLDIER. Whether or not he was being serious needed more time for me to think about it than I had at that moment, but I took it in my stride, along with finding out that all new applicants would be accepted for Cadet training without question, and would have their entire journeys paid for in full; a boat ride in a few days' time to somewhere close to Fort Condor, and then a train ride next Tuesday to be taken to Midgar, the base of operations of Shinra and SOLDIER. I was told to expect a few new faces arriving in the next two days who would be accompanying me to Midgar.

I was even able to snap a quick picture of the two of us, his arm around my shoulders; both grinning like there was no tomorrow, cups of tea in hand.

Saying farewell on a good note, I waved the SOLDIER off, hoping he'd both remember me _and_ forget me when I eventually attended Cadet training, in about a week or so, and charged up the stairs to my bathroom.

Staring at my long, wavy hair in the mirror, I thought back to my dream, and what my hair had looked like when I'd be in the training room. It was strange, thinking backwards to figure out the future, I pondered, staring at my hair as if it would magically manifest itself into short, spiky helmet hair. It didn't, unsurprisingly; and I reached into my drawer, pulling out a pair of scissors I knew had been in there.

I wasn't a nostalgic person - everyone knew this. I never really lamented over my past - tragic as it may be - just looked to the future; one reason why some considered me to be selfish, because I moved on quickly from the deaths and destruction of my parents and hometown. I always thought the alternative to moving on would be a whiny, miserable, depressed kid who couldn't go a day without bursting into tears, so I found myself wondering if people would actually _prefer_ that.

So, I decided, that my hair would be exactly as _I_ made it. I set down the scissors, figuring I could be more detailed with them later, and grabbed a handful of hair; my free hand groping for a knife in the cupboard I _knew_ was in there...somewhere.

I grunted in surprise as my fingertip accidentally slid across the sharp point, and put the small blade by the scissors, putting my fingertip in my mouth and sucking at the somewhat familiar taste of blood. A few moments later, I wiped my throbbing finger on my casual clothes, picked up the knife, and...

Hesitated.

I _wasn't_ a nostalgic person...but every girl, no matter what they said, loves their hair. It's one of the few things we can change about ourselves, to express just how we feel and who we are...and I adore my lightly wavy, waist-long blue hair, despite how long it took to wash, dry and brush.

So, instead of being wise and cutting my hair, I set down the knife and twisted my hair up atop my head. I clipped it in place, shoved on a hat, and carefully pulled at the spiky strands left, from the bottom of my hair, somewhat trying to replicate what my dream taught me. All the while, I repeated in my head, _don't attract attention to yourself...no guy has as long hair as you do._

Until I paused and remembered 'the Hero', the First Class General of SOLDIER everyone had heard of; Sephiroth. He was undeniably terrifying, in every possible way, and there were basically two ways you could recognize a person as _him_: his thin, but MASSIVE sword, and his eerily beautiful, long silver hair, which seemed to be just about as long as mine, perhaps even just a _little_ longer. Mine _would_ be longer, if it was straight as his.

So, I changed what I thought to myself; _Do NOT attract attention to yourself, no SANE guy has hair as long as yours._

I was eventually satisfied with the spiky tips of my blue hair sticking out of my hat, and as I leaned back and stared at myself in the mirror, I knew I could pass for a guy. My facial features were distinctly feminine, but there was nothing I could do about that, just avoid wearing make-up; something which shouldn't be too hard, I considered, as I hadn't worn make-up willingly in my life. Note: _willingly_. I avoided the stuff like it was a Chocobo. (I have a completely rational fear of falling off one, since my dad once showed pictures of a holiday he had involving Chocobos and cliffs. It took about five hours longer than it should have getting home, what with all the casts and bandages...)

With a close, critical glance over my face, I decided that I _could_ do without too much attention directed my way, and figured that I ought to, perhaps, tone down my enthusiasm a tad, just when I got there. Can't have people suspicious of me from the get-go... That could come later.

There was a clear, distinct problem I'd have, however; the end of my teenage years was approaching, and I figured I'd stopped growing a year ago, if not earlier. This provided a challenge for me, in regards to what I had; as opposed to what men _didn't_ have. By all means, they were far from..._large_...but were much too noticeable for me to get into a nearly all-male profession.

I knew it would get tiresome quickly. I knew that if I ever had a reason to give up my act, this one would be one of the most prominent. But, I reflected with irate melancholy, it was necessary, and would have to be maintained for as long as my boyish demeanour.

I pulled off my white, loose button-up top, and miserably took a roll of bandages from the drawer above me. Dropping my bra beside my top, I started tightly wrapping my upper torso in the bandages, grimacing and miserable from discomfort.

I tied off the end, making sure to use the roll sparingly, and looked in the mirror, twisting and turning to see every angle. Satisfied as I was, I pulled my top back on, and nodded; as close to unnoticeable as I knew I could ever get. And besides, it's not like anyone would stare at that general region for long enough to notice anything off.

I could only hope that a situation would never arise in which I'd have to take off any article of clothing. Whether it came as the result of relaxing on a beach on holiday or suffering from a fatal wound; I could simply hope it would never happen.

Both causes seemed nearly as terrifying as each other. In a way, being wounded would distract more from them discovering I was a girl, so mysteriously, I found myself preferring getting mortally wounded to relaxing on a beach. Not like I'd be getting to do any of the latter, anyway...

It was then - and only then, that I realized something worrying.

_Hold on, I had to blatantly lie to a SOLDIER's face to convince him to let me fight in a war?!_ The world is strange...

...

I didn't encounter anyone in the next few days that I didn't previously know (most likely due to not actually _leaving_ the house in preference to preparing for my new career) so when I found my way down to the docks, all dressed in a Shinra Cadet uniform left by Angeal, I was surprised when three people were already stood waiting, sitting on suitcases and quite contentedly conversing with one another.

I paused for a moment, unsure whether this was a good thing or not. It was good because it meant I could get a good bit of practise at being 'Cobalt', my own twin brother, before meeting the majority of my peers. On the other hand, this could turn out to be bad; if I messed up this interaction, I know how things go down, and I'd be rumoured about for the remainder of my life at Shinra.

My impulsive side took over, and with a final prayer, I jumped straight in.

"Hey, everyone!" I called to announce my arrival, and with three curious and friendly pairs of eyes turning in my direction, I - discreetly clearing my throat - waved as I jogged over. My bag on my shoulder was stuffed full with important belongings (not least of which being more rolls of bandages) and all the money I had in preparation of getting essential items to start this new life as well as possible. "All to Midgar, are we?"

The one with black hair grinned as I approached, and raised an enthusiastic fist to punch the air. "You bet! Man, I'm so stoked to join Shinra, I just can't wait for that boat!" he told me, bouncing in place just slightly.

I stared at him oddly, tilting my head a little. "And here I thought _I_ was excited," I replied mockingly.

"Heh, Zack here's putting us _all_ to shame," another joined in, a boy with short light-brown hair and mischievous blue-green eyes, as he poked the dark-haired 'Zack' in the side of the head. The other boy laughed heartily, a guy who was noticeably quite tall, with dirty-blonde hair and large brown eyes.

Zack and the brown-haired boy got into a play-fight, and the other was the first to introduce himself to me, stretching out his hand. "Call me Will. The two guys fighting are Zack and Kawi, so they say," he introduced, gesturing over to the two guys after giving me a friendly handshake.

I nodded, and half-smiled. "My name's Cobalt. Good to meet you guys," I said the last sentence slightly louder, to include the other two, even as Zack strode over to - for whatever reason - grab my head in a headlock.

"Awesome! Nice to meet you Coby!" he enthused, and released me to pick up his gear along with Will and Kawi to board as an announcement was given.

I took a moment to ponder where the nickname came from, but shrugged it off, and followed after the three guys; having a small and silent celebration over my first victory.

...

The boat ride was surprisingly short, and it seemed like no time at all until our group of Cadets had settled in for our ride to Midgar by train.

The group had grown bigger, and our little friendly group of four had turned into a considerably larger collection, including a good dozen we picked up before the train ride, so we had all started pairing off a little. Quite to my surprised happiness (the surprise was more at my happiness of it) I ended up finding my 'buddy' in Zack, and not Will like I was mostly expecting.

Seated next to each other on the train to Midgar, we had a great conversation all the way to Midgar, me finding Zack to be fun, easy to talk to and quite interesting at the same time (and hoping he saw the same), and I personally thought it was too soon, despite my earlier thoughts, when we left the beautiful, green landscapes that zoomed by and entered the pollution-riddled air of the huge, Mako-powered city.

The train slowed to a stop in the station, and as all the Cadets exited with their luggage, I noticed the half-dozen SOLDIERs littered throughout the station, as opposed to the many members of public milling about hastily, the SOLDIERs wielding guns and swords as ordinary people held suitcases and handbags.

I looked at each of the Cadets in turn, each looking around in wonder and confusion, before turning to Zack, shrugging, and then walking up to one of the SOLDIERs, Zack jogging excitably along behind me. I tapped the SOLDIER on the shoulder, and instantly gaped at the _clearly_ female SOLDIER stood in front of me.

The unknown female SOLDIER offered me and Zack a nod. "You're one of the Cadets brought in today?" she questioned, in a very feminine voice, and I, speechless with fury at the Shinra company and myself, could only nod in return.

The female SOLDIER clicked on her radio, and relayed a quick message that the Cadets had been received. The other SOLDIERS, all apart from one wearing Third Class uniforms (the other was wearing a Second uniform) rounded us up, and the Second Class addressed us and basically told us to follow him, as if we were excitable puppies looking for a treat.

I, for one, felt that way. Zack, for two; he was jumping along at my side, not even trying to contain his excitement.

With Zack and me jabbering animatedly to one another about SOLDIERs and heroes, it only felt like it took moments for us to reach Shinra HQ with the SOLDIERs and our fellow Cadets - I didn't even notice how dark and miserable the city seemed by comparison to what I was used to. Only when we arrived, and saw who would be introducing us to Shinra, did I return to Gaia; and resisted the urge to squeal and hide behind Zack.

Because, even though I knew I could trust this First Class SOLDIER, I _really_ didn't want to meet him just so soon. _Would you have preferred Sephiroth?_

...Now that I thought of it, YAY! ANGEAL!

I figured that, while we had met only days ago - it hadn't even been a week yet, since... - Angeal wouldn't recognise me, at least at first glance. I had taken care that morning to try to make myself less recognisable; I wore a Cadet helmet on my head, pressed down tightly so no one would notice the bump caused by the bulk of my hair bunched up on top of my head.

...Hopefully.

Suddenly I felt extremely self-conscious, and tried to pull my helmet further down over my eyes and hair. I watched, vision restricted somewhat, as the very familiar SOLDIER stepped in front of me and our group. He began to speak, and while I knew that what he was talking about was very important, his voice sent terrified chills down my spine so much so I could hardly focus.

I didn't let it show on my face, though, as his eyes casually yet intently flicked from Cadet to Cadet, each trying to straighten up and look tough; Zack beside me included. His eyes were slowly getting closer to me through the crowds, and instead of keeping my head down - an action that would surely arouse suspicion - I stared respectfully as the First Class SOLDIER I had served tea to only days ago slowly, unknowingly, made his way closer.

I attempted to imitate a stance of confidence, and kept a close eye on Angeal as his familiar, beautiful eyes glanced at me, moved on to Zack, before raving back to me intently for an excruciatingly long few moments before continuing. If not for this glance back, I wouldn't have realized his shock; he was as cool as a cucumber and didn't seem to relay any surprise or confusion he _might've_ felt when seeing me here. I was impressed; he was in the middle of saying a word, and there wasn't a stutter nor a delay. I wondered how he'd done it, in very vague interest.

Eventually, after another few surreptitious glances in my direction that got me more than just _one_ weird look from Zack on my left and Will on my right (who seemed to have abandoned Kawi, or the other way around) Angeal finished his speech and along with another SOLDIER guided us all to the apartments at the Shinra headquarters designated for the Cadets. From a first glance I figured we, as Cadets, got the worst; that is to say, the apartments - while they couldn't be described as _bad_... - would not be suitable for permanent living of any kind. I was amazed they could fit all of this in one building though!

I nudged Zack when I observed this and brought it to his attention; resulting in an unconcerned shrug from the otherwise highly enthusiastic Cadet. "If Third Classes got worse than Cadets, do you think they'd bother actually _taking_ the SOLDIER test?" he proposed his view on the relatively-unimportant topic, and I let out a small 'oh' of understanding.

Angeal and the other SOLDIER paused in front of a box of key cards, and the entire recession of the rest of us Cadets with them. "I'll be nice enough to allow you to decide amongst yourselves who you'll be sharing your apartments with; four per floor!" he quipped with a small smile, and an unnoticed, small glance to me as I smiled at the little phrase before turning to Zack, who grinned back and nodded with a laugh, and then received an elbow in the side, telling me Will wanted to share a room as well. "Everyone will be sharing a room with one other person per apartment, so find friends who rise early and like cold showers!" Angeal and the other member of SOLDIER beside him laughed.

Zack looked at the two of us, and announced heartily, "Let's find us another roomie!" He pounded a fist on top of my helmet, and started to glance around at the other Cadets who were slowly pairing off and getting into chattering groups. Just at that moment, a girl with short, dark brown hair strode past with a cool kind of collectiveness about her; until Zack grabbed her shoulder and jerked her towards Will and I.

"Hey, what's the big..." she trailed off, glancing up at the two of us, both somewhat glaring at Zack.

I smiled at her awkwardly. "Sorry about Zack; he can be a little too forceful at times," I apologised, and she blinked up at me. I finally noticed just how _short_ she actually was...

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Zack asked in concern, and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, sorry..."

Will rolled his eyes skyward, and elbowed me. "He seems to always get this way when he's trying to make a new friend, from what I can tell, doesn't he?" he joked, and the girl brushed her clothes free of imaginary dust and dirt, suddenly gaining an explosive expression as she turned to poor, excitable Zack.

"Well, _Zack_, maybe you should learn how to make a better first impression for the next time you try making friends with a girl, unless you _don't_ want children in the future, huh?" she roared, and we all winced in discomfort for Zack.. Especially _Zack_.

"Oh, right, uh, sorry...!" he muttered, and I raised an eyebrow as a thought crossed my mind. This was supposed to be the future of SOLDIER, huh?

We're all doomed. Still, it didn't mean that she had to snap at him like that...

I put a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down and rescue Zack, but before I could, she grabbed my hand off her shoulder and pulled me in Zack's direction. "Maybe you ought to learn from your friend here, who was polite enough to apologise for you!" the strange girl rebuked, and I looked up at Zack sheepishly, fully aware that I was about to combat the girl to defend Zack but now not really able to follow through with it.

Zack sent me an understanding grin, and I was relieved he was so laid-back with the situation. "To be fair, I did apologise for myself. Twice," he replied, causing the girl to fold her arms and glare at him. "Anyways, I was just going to ask if you wanted to live with us, but that's probably a mistake, so we'll find someone else..."

Zack trailed off, once again looking around him for another victim, while Will and I traded exasperated looks. The girl's expression, though - no matter how sly and unnoticeable it was - was not missed by me, as she glared at Zack with defiance in her dark-coloured eyes and glanced at me with a little smile that made me all-too uncomfortable. "Nope; just because of what you did, I'm going to live with you guys, if only to get back at _you_, Zack," she drawled, her sickly-sweet, dripping-with-sarcasm voice went hand-in-hand with the evil grin on her face.

Zack examined her for a moment, before shrugging carelessly. "If you want. Introductions, then?" he asked, rubbing his hands together and laughing. "I'm Zack, that's Will, and that's Coby," Zack swiftly gestured to Will, then me, and put a hand on his hip. "Our newest roommate, is...?"

"Ashley," she answered, looking around at us slowly. And whenever they stared at me for long enough to make me feel awkward, I ushered my three new friends forward.

"Come on, our apartment awaits!" I announced hastily, and Zack, regaining his bounce, took my arm and leapt forward, bringing us both right in front of Angeal and his other SOLDIER friend.

The two professionals blinked at us, and Zack and I grinned, unknowingly the mirror image of each other, as Will jogged up behind us and Ashley strode over calmly. With a glance over at his friend, Angeal grinned amusedly. "I think we have a pair of long-lost twins this year, Cliff," he joked, and with a grin, the other SOLDIER barked an agreeable laugh.

"Names?" Cliff, the other SOLDIER requested, stepping towards us, and we called out our names in turn, lining up next to each other.

Zack Fair. Cobalt Amell. William Carmichael. Ashley Matthias. All teenagers (despite how some acted). All at the peak of our physical condition (though I figured Will could do with being a little bulkier - he was as skinny as a twig). And, frankly, all complete newbies when it came down to the nitty gritty.

Even despite all the training I'd put myself through, really, what did I know about Mako? Or Materia? Or 'respect for superiors'?

I _would_ like to learn how to fly a helicopter or plane, though. That would just be so awesome. Or is it the Turks who get to do that awesome sort of stuff?

Cliff scribbled down our names; our pictures were taken (something I was pretty nervous about, considering); and Angeal gave us key cards to our apartment, along with these little personal organiser gadget PHS thingies and extra uniforms in our respective sizes. We were to get settled into our apartment until a SOLDIER would come by to give us our Cadet card-detail-thingies and timetables, and take us to the canteen, where we'd get a bite to eat before heading off to our first classes.

I talked. Zack talked - and talked. Will was somewhat quiet, and found his own amusement by freaking the rest of us out with weird glances. Ashley pretty much steered clear of our easy-going interaction altogether, something I considered to be quite antisocial. I mean, might as well get to know us now; she'd be sharing our apartment for weeks, maybe even months to come.

Amongst relatively boring and pointless information, I discovered that Zack and I had our hearts set on SOLDIER while Will was quite indecisive, but felt more inclined to training as a Turk in future. Will told that he seemed to have a hobby with tinkering with machinery, and we discovered that Zack's level of fitness was no accident; he loved his food, but was very good with exercising well and was surprisingly health-conscious about fitness exercises. In response to that, I confided in them that I don't sleep in beds. They thought that was especially weird.

I also found out that I was actually the youngest of us; at fifteen and five-sixths, I wasn't actually legally allowed to take the test for SOLDIER for another two months. Zack was four months my elder. Ashley was exactly a month, a week and a day from him, and Will would be seventeen in less than a month; we got an exact date, because he seemed the person who would milk it for all it's worth. That was good, though!

A knock on the door alerted us to the arrival of Cliff, armed with four official-looking personnel cards and a charming grin. He gave each of us our personnel cards - how professional, we were only Cadets! - and after giving us a few moments to admire our cards and laugh at each others', he gestured us to follow him, and left.

It wasn't too long before the five of us arrived at the cafeteria, where only a few other people were eating; Cadets I recognised from earlier. Cliff filled me in, "Cadets and Third Classes eat at the same time, but today their food break was organised to be a little later. Wish I got that treatment..."

I laughed at the Second Class' depressed mutterings, and bounced forward to the food at the front of the room. I took a plate of noodles and curry - because I _love_ curry - and sat down at a free table, with Zack quickly slamming down a brimming plate of plenty of assorted foods next to me a moment later.

I gave his plate a look, and then I gave the boy himself a look - both of disdain. He shrugged, and said, "What? I'm a growing boy." And with a small smile, he dived face-first into his plateful.

In the usual order, it seemed, Will was next to appear with a hamburger, settling opposite me on the table, and Ashley set her plate of rabbit food at the head, on the right of me and the left of Will. Cliff, I was pleased to see, meandered over a short few moments after, also with a hamburger but absolutely lathered in ketchup. He looked somewhat awkward, settling next to Will, but became at ease when Zack and I grinned shamelessly at him.

Our group easily found a comfortable conversation topic, as Zack began to choke on his food. I joked and laughed at him for a bit, but when his face started turning from its usual, rather pale shade to an alarming dark red, I hit him on the back to help him out a little.

The morsel of food finally seemed to go down the right tube, and the other three chattered amongst themselves, while I rubbed Zack's back to help him recuperate. After a short while he sent me a shaky smile, his face returned to its usual colour, and he cleared his throat a couple of times before turning back to his food.

I raised my eyebrows with a surprised smile, but said nothing, and filled my mouth with noodles and curry sauce.

* * *

"So, how are the new Cadets?" a red-headed First Class SOLDIER asked his friend, though clearly unconcerned. He seemed much more interested in an imaginary scuff on his right red glove, which he was rubbing with his left thumb, a little bit frustrated but mostly uncaring.

The recipient of the question, the dark-haired First Class sitting opposite him, smirked. "Mostly they seem just excited to be here," he replied, thinking of two in particular. "Some more than others."

The third of their group of First Classes, a quiet, silver-haired General, looked up from his paperwork to examine his friend, though he said nothing, letting the first, the man in the red leather coat, smirk and reply, "What, have you made a friend already, Angeal?"

Angeal rolled his eyes at the immature tease, and leaned back in his seat, deciding to reply truthfully. "Two, actually."

The redhead blinked in surprise, before his smirk expanded into a teasing grin. "Really, now?" he drawled, a barely-masked chuckle in his voice.

Angeal kicked him lightly in the shin, with no intention of causing harm to his childhood friend. "You couldn't possibly miss them. Leaping up, down and everywhere and generally acting like toddlers or... puppies."

The SOLDIER opposite him barked a laugh. "I doubt the kiddies'd cause that much trouble, Angeal," he replied disbelievingly.

Angeal had a little chuckle. "Keep an eye out, Genesis. They seem to stick to each other like glue. Look out for the shorter one, he's got blue hair." A slender eyebrow was raised at him, but he paid no heed.

"Anyone you recognise?" the near-silent one spoke up for the first time, his voice naturally deep, and his two friends glanced at him in question. The General elaborated, "From your recruitment."

"Not from last week, no," he answered, and reconsidered a moment later. "Well, actually, I met Blue's twin; oh, and she has the same colour blue, by the way, so it must be natural," Angeal joked to Genesis, who leaned forward in his seat, suddenly looking more interested than in his glove.

"_Really_, Angeal? Would you, perhaps, be _interested_ in a Cadet's sister...?" he gasped, over-dramatizing - as usual, Angeal thought - and stared at Angeal with a sly smirk.

Angeal glared back in response. "_She_ was the one who took the picture!" Yup, his two friends had already found the picture of an undeniable Angeal grinning with a blue-haired teenage girl, his arm thrown around her shoulders and her holding the camera in her hand, both holding cups of tea in the other. Sephiroth, the General and the most serious of them, had accidentally found it when looking for some forms that needed filling out, and despite how hard he tried, they both knew it would only be a matter of time before Genesis would also find out.

And he had, only two minutes after. It seemed to Angeal that, since then, Genesis had not allowed him to forget about the girl. Now, it seemed even less likely that the day would be laid to rest; what with her twin brother joining.

Genesis tapped his chin with a gloved index finger. "I suppose, I couldn't blame you. She did look reasonably sweet in that picture," he continued, ignoring Angeal's explanation, but staring at the man provocatively. "Quite cute, in a sweet, childish sort of way..."

Neither Angeal nor Sephiroth understood why Genesis always seemed out to push boundaries and generally get in bother. Sephiroth had first been confused by his behaviour, not knowing why he would knowingly push someone to anger for his own lackadaisical amusement, but he had quickly adapted to it. Angeal had known the boy since childhood, and had long ago accepted the way his red-headed friend went about annoying people. Both were pretty much immune to his teasing, by now, and knew exactly how to deal with him. (It was nearly as if the two were Genesis' carers, even parents!)

So, instead of getting frustrated or angry at the somewhat-immature SOLDIER, Angeal grinned in amusement as he thought of an appropriate comeback. "Genesis, in every way possible, both her and the new Cadet are identical. I wasn't sure before, but it's good to know just where you stand, in that respect," he sniped, and from where he was watching the situation, Sephiroth smirked in amusement before returning to his work.

Genesis' eyes sparked, and he laughed sarcastically. "Ha ha, Angeal, _hilarious_."

Because everyone knew Genesis was quite defensive when _that_ topic came up. As far as Angeal or Sephiroth knew, he had no reason to be; he may have been a little flamboyant, but that was how he was! That was what his fangirls loved about him!

Those strange, twisted stories his fangirls wrote about him - and in some cases, _them_ - didn't make Genesis any less of a man. A, uh... _straight_ man. A _happy_, _straight_ man... a _man_...

Angeal shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the creepy thoughts. "They'll be going to their first classes now," Angeal informed them, though it looked as if only Genesis was now even remotely interested in the conversation, Sephiroth much too busy working. "'Introduction to Weaponry'. There are two classes; I'm teaching one of them, and Wallace the other. You'd be welcome to come along and meet the Cadets..."

Genesis smoothly got to his feet, his eyes closed and his head bowed. His hands and his head shook from side to side in time with the other. "I was already approached to take part in the whole 'teaching' malarkey. I said 'Definitely NOT!' then and I'm even more disinclined now. If there's any chance anyone sane out there has any disillusions about me, the last thing I want to do is add fuel to the fire by it getting out that I _may_ have been attracted to the identical twin of a boy!"

Sephiroth regained his interest in the conversation, and both he and Angeal stared at the redhead as he gasped for air. "Genesis?" Angeal mumbled in slight fear. What had happened to his friend while he wasn't paying attention?!

"No way, no..." Genesis mumbled to himself repeatedly, striding hastily out of the room. Sephiroth and Angeal shared a glance, shrugged, and Angeal left go start about his own business.


	2. Not Since Redecoration

Heh, when I posted the first chapter, I forgot to stick in a disclaimer and whatever. My mistake! I correcteded it. And here it is again! ;)

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Yup, I am that professional. :D

My goodness, I am amazed at the numbers, after the _first chapter_! What, 5 favourites, and 4 followers? Wow, thanks! :D

TheSecondOtherGuy: Ahh, thank you! Means a lot to hear it! ;)

* * *

2 - Not Since Redecoration

I rocked back and forth on my heels impatiently and jumpy. _Stupid teacher... how could he be LATE?!_

Will, leaning against the wall next to me, patted my shoulder with a small laugh. "Relax, Cobe, our teacher will come at _some_ point!" he encouraged, and I shrugged him off.

"Introduction to Weaponry, Will? This has got to be the best class ever, so really, who would arrive late?!" I demanded to know.

It had been two minutes since we were rounded up from the cafeteria by Angeal and Cliff and taken to the next class. We were grouped off into two classes, previously worked out by some sort of formula, and Angeal had taken in his class to their room and, presumably, started teaching immediately.

Meanwhile, 'Mr Wallace Everton', despite his relatively cool name, had yet to show his face. Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds I've had to suffer, and I could already imagine the repercussions throughout the year. We'd always be teased for being behind! We'd not be able to take the SOLDIER test for another month because we didn't know how our weapon worked! We'd be killed at the hands of our enemies for the want of two minutes and fifty-four seconds' worth of class!

Perhaps, that _may_ have been a little extreme, but who knows? Not until they happen, you don't. There's always someone to blame, and I blame my absent teacher!

Oh, wait, is that him?

"My apologies, Cadets!" he called as he charged down the corridor, and came to a stop in front of us, standing outside the door. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go!"

And with that, our total idiot of a teacher strode right into his classroom, not even having the manners to hold it open for the next person. Each of us outside the door shared a glance, before one boy followed into the classroom. I was next to enter, followed shortly by Will, and the rest of the class piled in after him.

"Cool..." the first boy in mumbled, and from the teacher I looked to what he was looking at - and instantly grinned, seeing what was amazing and _so_ familiar.

A big, and by big I mean huge, table was in the centre of the room, and reached from one end of the class to the other, with only a small gap at the ends to let people through. You could barely see the table, though; it was completely and totally covered in all kinds of weapons. It caught me by surprise; though I suppose I should have expected it to look exactly like how I remembered my dad's shop.

I hit Will's chest in amazement as I stared at the spread of weapons. "Wow..." he muttered, and I carefully looked through. Daggers, swords of all sizes, rapiers, spears, katanas, sais, axes, maces, gauntlets, gunblades...

Further down that side were long-range weapons, more I was unfamiliar with. Mostly pistols, rifles, machine guns, and just the one crossbow. All things considered; it was pretty impressive.

We all stood behind the table, all of the weapons handles pointed away from us - which put a lot of us on edge - and Mr Everton stood behind the table, looking at us with his head lowered and a creepy, evil-looking grin. "Welcome to Shinra, Cadets."

I nudged Will with my elbow, and he flicked it with a snort.

"First question! Has anyone used a weapon before?" the eccentric teacher asked, and I raised my hand, along with a few others. Will's hands stayed by his side, but he examined me with interest. "What weapon, what for?" he asked, looking to the right, at the first who raised his hand.

"Rifle. Mostly pest control at farms and stuff," he answered, and the teacher nodded to me.

"Rapiers, swords and daggers." At an intrigued raised eyebrow, I explained, "My parents trained me."

"How long for?" he enquired, and I counted back.

"Five years," I answered, deciding that it was probably closer to six, or maybe seven, and even then not counting the two years I'd been training myself. He nodded, and turned to the last two people who had raised their hands; two twin brothers, with dark-as-night hair that fell to their shoulder blades and striking green eyes.

"Gauntlets. We trained each other," the one on the right replied with a smirk, while the one on the left folded his arms and just looked _tough_. It was actually quite interesting to look at them; the left one seemed dominant and plain scary, and while the right wasn't exactly _tame_-looking, he seemed quite a lot friendlier.

I didn't know their names. I'd have to find that out...

"You four have your own weapons?" Mr Everton enquired, looking between us. The twins shook their heads, while us two nodded. He looked pointedly at us both. "Bring them to class tomorrow."

Because we had another Introduction to Weaponry class tomorrow. Cliff had told us we'd have five of these in total, before we moved on to proper weapons' training. I know! How awesome is that?!

Plus we'd only have this guy until then; and next class apparently both of our classes would be together, for some reason. After the five classes, I'd be taught by Angeal, because I was training for SOLDIER. We'd be giving in our applications to the SOLDIER program after these five lessons.

And, by Gaia, I was _thrilled_.

Still, now that I thought about it, this class tomorrow may not go well for me and my totally-awesome-boy-disguise. There'd be twice as many students, which was good (make me less conspicuous) but Angeal would be a teacher; and due to his already-established interest in me and my history, I had a feeling I wouldn't really be allowed to sink back into the background.

Plus, two people in our class had our own weapon, and one of them was me. That _may_ not work to my advantage. Still, who knows how many in the other class have their own?

And, well...to be honest, my sword is...well, just plain epic. My dad crafted it for me, and _only_ me, around two or three years ago now. The sheath was a pretty navy blue with silvery designs inscribed all over. The blade was pure black, and also inscribed with similar designs, only to a lesser extent. A blue ribbon that nearly matched my hair perfectly was tied around the dark teal handle. The blade was thin and long (though not nearly as thin _or_ long as Sephiroth's infamous sword, obviously) with an extremely precise and sharp edge, and was about three fifth's my height.

In a class that _may_ only have one other weapon, there was little chance I'd be politely ignored in next 'Introduction to Weaponry' class.

I was so stuck on what next class would be like, when I finally returned to today's class, it had ended. It was a bit of a shame, but from what I could tell, I hadn't missed all that much. Will smirked at me as I roused myself to the sound of everyone leaving, and shoved me with a laugh.

"We're in 'Survival Training' now, or so the timetable says," Will observed, before folding it and sliding it into a pocket. "Fifteen floors up from here, and doesn't say who the teacher is. Same for you?" he enquired, and I thought back to my timetable for a moment before nodding.

"Yup, same here," I answered, and thought for a moment. "You know what the others are in now?"

Will scratched the back of his dirty-blonde head for a moment. "I'm pretty sure Zack's in this class. Not certain of Ashley, but I think she is."

William Carmichael's memory was spot on. I raised my eyebrows at him in total disbelief, and he just laughed, as Zack and Ashley greeted us in the corridor outside the classrooms, where both of our classes were waiting and mingling.

"Angeal is _so_ cool," Zack was saying, fantasizing with a grin on his face. "There were so many weapons, and he just showed us his own _massive_ one, and his was _way_ better than all of the weapons put together!"

I flicked him on the forehead, and he took an extremely over-the-top reaction, nearly falling backwards onto the floor but just about catching himself on. "How many people in your class have their own weapons?" I enquired warily, and Zack's hands rested on his hips.

"Oh, your teacher asked you that too? It was kind of awkward, no one had their own..."

My heart sunk at that moment, and if anything, fell through the earth as Will pounded a hand on my shoulder. "Two of our class has their own weapons! And just guess who one of them is!"

Zack grinned at me after a split second. "Show me."

I rolled my eyes, and shook my head. I watched his face fall, and he repeated the demand.

And thus, a loop began. Ashley meandered over to us, and she and Will watched in disdain as Zack and I got into the argument of the century.

"Show me."

"No."

"Show me."

"No."

"Show me."

"No."

"Show m-"

"Zack, I grew up with a twin sister. _No_."

"...Show me."

"No."

After about five minutes of neither of us giving in, a familiar face showed up - one I was happy to see, for once.

Cliff approached, noticed our argument, shook his head and went in front to the doors of the class to grab everyone's attention. "Your teacher for 'Survival Training' is unable to teach at present, so I'm covering you guys, just for today. Come on!"

He waved us into the room, and Zack and I broke off the argument to follow Will and Ashley in.

I was amazed, glancing around the huge, empty room. At large, it was dull and uninteresting; discounting the numerous skid marks on the floor, on the walls, and a massive burn mark - and an extremely noticeable dent - covering three-quarters of one wall. Suddenly I got a feeling of apprehension in my stomach. As if the name 'Survival Training' wasn't enough to terrify me.

As he passed, I nudged Cliff in the arm. "Uh, is this room used by anyone else for anything?" I enquired shakily, my eyes glued to the same wall.

Cliff's eyes flickered to where mine were directed, and he grinned wolfishly. "To answer your question; not since that wall got redecorated, no."

"..._Meep_..."

Cliff laughed at me, thumped me on the shoulder, and went to stand in front of the class, while I moved closer to Zack and the others. "Alright, class! My name's Cliff Luxor, and I'll actually be a Coach in your 'Fitness and Teamwork' class. I'm also your sub for today, so enjoy it while it lasts," he introduced, and gave a small, knowledgeable smirk that made me quake in my helmet with a shiver.

I got that sudden feeling of déjà vu as Cliff addressed the class, and realized my dream had been fulfilled. I had a little celebratory grin to myself, and wondered what my next dream would be.

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them fiercely. "Now, for anyone who noticed the name of the class and shook in terror, you'd be right. For those who didn't, this is 'Survival Training' - which is just what you're thinking. How to survive in war."

Cliff went on to explain, in considerable detail, what the class would be about. With way too much foreshadowing for how terrifying our teacher actually was, he informed us that just the first day would be theoretical and oral; from when our teacher showed up for next class, we would be put through non-stop physical training.

All things considered, I was actually looking forward to the next 'Survival Training' class. For one, just to see if our teacher was really that bad. For two, the oral was extremely dull, so I was hoping physical would be at least a _little_ better.

Cliff told us before we left that classes ended later than this usually, but because it was our first day, it was cut short, to allow us to get into the swing of things. When we were leaving, I walked up to 'Mr Luxor' - a name I didn't feel I'd ever call him - to ask a reasonable enough question.

"Why did our mysterious, extremely tough teacher not show up for this class, really?"

The Second Class SOLDIER laughed. "Any number of reasons, to be honest. He thought talking in this class was dull. He wanted to give the right first impression. He wanted to learn of your battling skills as opposed to learning about actually _you_. He didn't feel like it. He never really wanted to teach in the first place. First and foremost, Director Lazard isn't actually completely certain he _will_ do this."

I snorted. "Sounds like an interesting chap."

"Certainly does."

After our little discussion, Cliff gestured me out of the classroom and followed me out. With a swipe of his Personal ID card, the automatic doors closed tight, and a resounding 'click!' told me it had been locked.

My three friends were there waiting for me, and Cliff nodded to me before starting off in the opposite direction. I grinned after the brown-haired Second Class, despite that he couldn't see me, and charged to my friends. "To our apartment!"I called, and Zack instantly grabbed me around the shoulders.

"To our apartment!" he echoed.

"Gung ho!" Will answered, and we all turned to Ashley expectantly.

"...Gung ho."

We all cheered for her, and set off running. It wasn't too long before we made it back, and all hung out in our little lounge, sat on the sofa watching TV, Will and I constantly arguing about the idiocy of some specific adverts while Zack channel-hopped and Ashley tried to get some sort of feng shui going with the furniture.

Ashley eventually looked in the fridge, and gasped in surprise. "There's nothing in here!" she announced, and looked to us for a reaction.

I looked to her with wide eyes, worried about this, until I thought of something. "Uh, don't we just get food at HQ?" I pondered, and Zack turned to me, whacking me in the arm with the remote.

"That's just lunch. Hold on-" he swivelled to look at Ashley, "-we have no food?!"

Ashley shrugged. "Nothing, from what I can see. We'll have to go shopping," she claimed, her eyes twinkling; an expression I greatly feared.

It seemed, however, that the two other boys had a similar understanding, but quicker reactions. Will was first to rebuke, then Zack;

"No way! I'm finding the best channels, I'm not set up, I need to unpack, which is something I think I'll go do right now..."

"Ah! No, I'm terrible at shopping, my mum always shops for me, I always buy junk food and persuade her to buy me chocolate and we'll all be fat by the end of the-I'm gone!"

The two zipped out of the room, and we looked at them in surprise before turning to each other, gauging each others' reactions. I scratched the back of my neck, beneath the spiky tips of my hair. "I, uhh..."

Ashley smiled kindly. "Would you mind helping me out?"

I sighed, and nodded with a shrug. "We're roommates, it's the least I can do for you, Ashley," I agreed, and she winked.

"Call me Ash," she answered, and gestured me to follow her before leaving. I patted my pocket, making sure of the wallet in there, before following, closing the door behind me.

Ash and I found ourselves in pleasant chatter as we made our way to the grocery store, and I briefly thought about how easy it was for me to sink into this role - of being a boy, not talking to a girl. It was strange, but I realized that I didn't have to change all that much about myself; I wasn't exactly a girly-girl to begin with, I knew that much.

I realized that, while Ash was generally quite quiet in large groups, she was getting to be quite friendly and outgoing towards us, and I found it quite easy to get on with her. She had an extremely quick wit that had me in stitches, and she didn't seem to feel in any way left out by being one of the few girls in Shinra who weren't 'secretaries' or whatever.

She maintained it would set her apart from the others, and give her the perfect opportunity to prove her worth and really work at it. "In that case, I wish you all the best," I had replied, and she had smiled and nodded at me.

Surprisingly, grocery shopping wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. Or as I remember it to be. We bought a lot of good, healthy stuff - nothing that was totally disgusting, but good stuff like fish and all that - and also a considerable amount of rubbish...like éclairs..._drool_...

We shared the load to carry back, and actually got back pretty quickly. The door was unlocked, so it just took a few moments to get in and set all the shopping into the kitchen. I offered to help Ash put the food and everything away, and she said she'd appreciate it, but she'd find it a lot easier to find everything if she had time to recognise where it was all going, so I left her to it.

After all, she was the self-appointed chef of the apartment...

I was quite surprised, watching my two other roommates in the lounge. The TV was muted and playing the strangest-looking cartoon I have ever seen, the sofas were pushed back a little and surrounding Zack and Will as they heaved for breath and carried on with their squats as if we hadn't entered. The small table was in front of them, with a glass bowl filled with popcorn and little marshmallows, and I could see the remote for the TV at the bottom of the bowl.

I was amazed. And of all the plausible, understandable things I could have said, the question that came to mind was...

"I thought we didn't _have_ food?!"

* * *

In the Shinra building, it was common knowledge that Sephiroth was a busy man. To everyone, it seemed as though there was never a moment he spared for himself, to relax and to forget all worries.

That, along with many other factors, were what made the First Class SOLDIER General seem... inhuman.

His two friends, comrades, brothers-in-arms, whatever people wished to call them, Angeal and Genesis would see him, on occasion, taking a minute or two break from his paperwork to lean back in his chair and think.

At the best of times, no one knew what he was thinking, with the exclusion of a few select people. Whenever he leaned back and relaxed in his leather chair in his office, the expression on his face and the emotions he felt were completely unreadable, even to his best friends. He'd either think desperately hard on something for a few minutes or think of nothing at all for that time, before wordlessly continuing his work.

Needless to say, for these small moments to be interrupted, the end of the world may be nigh. Or, at least, so Genesis liked to think. Sephiroth had made no inclination he'd heard, when the red-head of the group had said so, and Genesis had presumed the statement to be correct, with some amusement.

Whether or not it was true, no one dared to find out. Sephiroth would strike fear into the hearts of the bravest of people by being himself. Genesis imagined the stupid person who would one day interrupt Sephiroth's brainstorming sessions would melt into a puddle of goo in his office beneath his glare.

So, one day when Sephiroth sat in his office, scribbling signatures on near-pointless paperwork and Genesis was reading LOVELESS intently, sat on Sephiroth's rather comfortable sofa (unexplainably he had one in his office...), his crystalline blue eyes darted to his silver-haired friend as he heaved a laborious sigh and leaned back in his chair, and said nothing.

Genesis, in wonder, watched his friend, as Sephiroth's green eyes stared into nothing. His book, forgotten about, nearly slid from his grip - but before it could, Genesis made sure to grab it. The last thing he wanted was to surprise Sephiroth.

Staring at the back of Sephiroth's head, Genesis couldn't help but marvel at the situation. If it was anyone else, like Angeal, he'd be right beside him asking what had him all thoughtful, teasing and joking. But this was _Sephiroth_. Miraculously, he felt as though he was watching a solar eclipse or something. A rare event, a strange occurrence, an opportunity to watch something that only happened once in a lifetime.

Genesis held back a snort, watching his friend inquisitively. Sephiroth was a man. He was a person, just like anyone else. He shouldn't be treated with such reverence.

And yet, Genesis pondered what would happen if that did happen. If people started treating Sephiroth as more of an equal and less of a...deity?

He figured he should be the one to start, and shrugged, eyes flicking back to the poetry in his hand, trying to delve further and find more inspiration, ignoring his friend.

Meanwhile, Sephiroth was in a completely different world. He found himself in a bit of a trance, as his brain worked through the kinks to a problem he had previously considered.

This happened often. He'd think about something while doing work, really, the only time he cared to let his mind wander. If it was a seriously pressing problem, he'd pause his work and think it through from every possible angle, trying to find a way around this problem, or how to solve it.

Once it was done, he memorized his conclusion, and put it to the back of his mind; the problem, after all, could be dealt with later, when he wasn't neck-deep in paperwork.

Such a problem afflicted him today; and he found himself thinking about the young new Cadet Angeal had been talking about.

Why? He had no idea. But he let his thoughts lead him, though he knew little about this boy.

He was quite a curious boy. It seemed to Sephiroth that he had grabbed Angeal's instant interest. From Sephiroth's own point of view, the boy had many, many intriguing layers to his background, all leading up to him, and Angeal was trying to unravel a mystery that may be better left alone.

_Angeal needs to be careful where he treads_, Sephiroth considered worriedly. _Many people join Shinra under many different pretences. He shouldn't delve too far; else many people could get upset._

From what Sephiroth could tell, it began as simple curiosity, which was natural and to be expected. After all, Angeal had met the Cadet's twin sister no more than a week previous; it seemed just a little coincidental, but perfectly acceptable at the same time.

Angeal had made plans, Sephiroth could tell, to reach out to the boy and welcome him. It was an instinctive reaction, Sephiroth supposed; no matter what he might say, even in half an hour or however long it was, he had connected to the sister, Sapphire. What that connection might be, Sephiroth didn't know for certain, but he decided that it was probably more as a friend or protector than as romantic interest, as opposed to what Genesis liked to think.

The two twins must have been very similar, so perhaps Angeal felt the same way about Cobalt that he did about Sapphire? Possibly.

Sephiroth had to admit, this new Cadet had him interested. After all, watching Angeal bicker back and forth with Genesis was quite amusing, this was just another topic for them to playfully disagree over.

It was also quite intriguing what Angeal had come and told them earlier that day. As Angeal was taking one or two of the new classes of Cadets, he would be able to find out more about Cobalt, even despite that he didn't seem to be in Angeal's class. Zack was though, Angeal's other Cadet friend, so that was... nice.

But, rather more importantly, he had been talking with the other teacher, and Angeal had told Genesis and Sephiroth that, not only did Cobalt have his own weapon, but also five years of training under his belt. Whether that was a good thing or not had yet to be decided, of course, but it would be intriguing to find out.

How could it be a bad thing? There were two factors; the amount of training and the trainer. One should not assume that more training is better; Cobalt could have had a terrible teacher.

Sephiroth presumed not, though. From what he'd heard, Cobalt seemed relatively bright. Not a boy who would waste five years of life training for something that would be no use. Like studying science to become a musician. Surely anyone worth being here would not waste years of their lives studying for something entirely different?

Sephiroth shook his head, willing his thoughts to get back on track.

Tomorrow Angeal and his companion teacher would be sharing the class so they could better interact and decide on students to continue with. Cobalt - and the other boy with his own weapon - would be bringing them to the class, and then, presumably, learning about appropriate weapons for each person and whatnot.

_I look forward to tomorrow to hear about what new thing Cobalt will have amazed Angeal with_, Sephiroth mused, with amusement, and looked back over his desk, filled with stacks of papers; and one sealed envelope placed at the top.

Wondering how he had not noticed before, Sephiroth picked it up, broke the seal, and took out the relatively short letter. Asking whether or not he'd be interested in teaching the new Cadets in 'Survival Training' class.

Ordinarily, Sephiroth wouldn't pass up the opportunity to watch and mock as numerous big-headed Cadets were brought down to size in that one class. In this case, however...

He began to write a quick response;

"_What do you take me for? I would NEVER..._" ...pass up an opportunity such as this!


	3. Train of Thought

Truthfully, I just wanted to have an update on 12/12/12. Heh heh, I think you guys'll enjoy the next one... XD

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Little, quite obvious reference to what has to be the best song on YouTube of all time. I don't own that either-I have to buy the merchandise myself. Though, my brother said he'd get me the t-shirt for Christmas! (Hey, have you heard, of the 'I like trains' kid...) :D

* * *

3 - Train of Thought

"So what did you think of _that_ class, Cobalt?" Ash was asking me, as we left our very first, introductory lesson of 'Strategy and Tactics'.

I smirked. "Well, considering I'm the least strategic person in the universe, it wasn't all bad," I admitted with a shrug of one shoulder. Ash laughed appreciatively, and looked ahead to the rest of our class walking together.

To our next class. The one I've kind-of been dreading all day. You know, that 'Introduction to Weaponry' class. Yeah. That one. I'm actually pretty nervous about it now!

But what I didn't realize, was before the torture (which did _not_ make me feel better, drawing it out like this) was lunch.

We had to go to lunch. We had to eat and socialise with our friends, and converse about the only interesting thing that was going to happen today. I don't think anyone needs to guess what _that_ is.

As soon as I went in to the cafeteria, Zack bombarded me with questions, and I carefully manoeuvred around them all, until all four of us started a normal conversation in our forty-five minute lunch break.

We ate and chatted to each other animatedly, and no one seemed to notice my slight unease as I thought through all sorts of different scenarios in my head;

-Tripping and falling on my way to class and impaling myself on my sword, only for my dead body to be discovered by...-

-Tripping clumsily on my way to class when seeing Sephiroth, impaling myself on my sword, only for Sephiroth to...-

-Tripping clumsily on my way to class when seeing Sephiroth, impaling _him_ on my sword, only for Sephiroth to take out his huge sword, gain an insane expression and swipe off my head...-

-Tripping clumsily on my way to class when seeing Sephiroth, impaling myself on my sword, only for Sephiroth to call a medic who was clearly Mr Everton behind the surgical mask...-

-Getting to class only for _Doctor_ Everton to take off my helmet, point and scream, "It's a GIRL!" and come at me with a scalpel, accompanied by...-

-Getting to class only for Doctor _Angeal_ to take off my helmet, point and scream, "It's SAPPHIRE!" and come at me with my own sword, crafted by...-

-Going to my parents' house with a Father's Day card in hand, being invited in by my Mum and going to give my card and thoughtful gift to my dad, Angeal...-

-Dad Angeal holding my sword out to me with my regular Dad's half-smile on my birthday, with a short montage of me training until just a few weeks shy of a year, when I kissed Dad Angeal on the cheek before spinning to get on a train...-

-A battle-hardened, super-cool, warrior version of me at the same age returning to stand in front of Dad Angeal and Mum, protecting them from a swirling, black, unseen foe...-

-A battle-hardened, super-cool, warrior version of me at the same age returning to stand in front of Dad Angeal and Mum, protecting them from Sephiroth...-

-Defending my cowering parents in the carriage of the train I was supposed to be on, battling with a smirking, even eviller-looking Sephiroth than normal on the roof of the same carriage, Zack flying in to help...-

-A young, colourless cartoon child announcing that he 'liked trains' was hit by a rainbow-crapping train through a building...-

-The origin of the phrase, 'train of thought'...-

And just like that, my food had gone cold, and I had been abandoned. What a jip.

I shrugged to myself, threw out my freezing lunch, muttered to myself about my wild imagination and took off running to my room.

It wasn't too long before I reached the apartment, finding no people on the way, and then mine and Zack's room. I dived under my bed, and pulled out my trusty bag, with only the most precious, sentimental items to me; a framed photograph of my long-since-gone family... And, well, that was it as far as sentimental went.

There were only three other things in that bag; in order of increasing awesomeness, a weapons' restoration kit, a silver dagger with a teal hilt, and the sword that had yet to spill the blood of an enemy.

Dad had crafted it for me months before his death, and allowed me to train with it, but not on any opponent. He gave it to me when I left, and, well, there weren't that many appropriate people I knew I would be able to practise on.

I gripped the hilt tightly, holding the blue sheath, and pulled the blade out only slightly; enough to see the encrypted design in silver against the shimmering black.

It was slid back in, I pulled the strap over my head and one shoulder, and took off for class, denying to myself that I was grateful for Sephiroth not being around.

I stumbled down the corridor, took a calming breath, and rounded a corner, to see my chattering classmates and no teachers. Zack saw me instantly and bounded up to me, his eyes glistening at a specific point over my shoulder.

"So, that's your sword? Can I see it?" When I began to shake my head, he pouted; and I knew I had found the bane of my life at SOLDIER. "Can you show your best buddy Zack?"

Darn puppy eyes...

But before I could stutter and attempt to say no, the classroom door was opened, and two familiar teachers gestured us in. Zack frowned irately, and I grinned mockingly at him, pretending to flick my hair over my shoulder and keeping a strong grip on my sword as I entered the classroom.

The first five minutes were fine; the two teachers introduced themselves, and we were all happy. Until Mr Everton stabbed the two of us in the back and gestured us forward.

"These are the two students I told to bring their weapons," he told Angeal (or rather Commander Hewley) and grandly gestured to the boy standing proudly with his gun (whose name had escaped me) and me. "He uses a rifle, and he wields a sword-"

"A rapier, Sir," I cut across, nodding to Mr Everton in an attempt to seem polite before examining Angeal with a half-smirk, noticing him offering me something similar.

Mr Everton didn't seem offended, and respectfully stepped back, allowing Angeal to investigate himself; after all, Angeal was a Commander, thus Mr Everton's - only of teaching staff - superior.

Angeal reached out a hand towards Mr Rifle first, nodding to him to insinuate he should introduce himself. "Riley, Sir. Jack Riley," he announced, and grinned.

Angeal faintly smiled back and retreated back from him, holding out his hand again. "May I see your rifle?" he enquired, at Jack's clear confusion.

Jack "oh"ed and took his rifle from his back - it was at that point that I noticed the rest of the class staring. Angeal held it delicately, with the utmost respect; but even I could see that the weapon was unsuited to Shinra levels of technology and expertise. "It's four years old now," Jack found it appropriate to speak, and Angeal seemed impressed.

"Four years? It's very well maintained. Quite an impressive weapon, Jack," he commented, and while Jack grinned and accepted his weapon from the appraising First Class, the blue eyes flickered to me, with a hint of mischief. "Blue?" he addressed me, and I let out a huff of air, hearing Zack and Will snicker.

I lifted my rapier by the sheath and pulled it up over my head. I raised another hand to hold it straight, at my chest, parallel to the ground, and held it out to him.

Angeal took it with one hand on the sheath, flipped it over so the hilt was by his right side, and raised his right hand to grip the now-quite-small-looking hilt with the ribbon.

His hand clasped it for only a moment, before it was retracted as if he'd burned himself. My eyebrow cocked, and he met my eyes, clear interest obvious in the pretty, glowing blue. "This blade was crafted for you," he observed, not posed as a question because he already knew the answer.

I smirked, and replied, "Yeah, three years ago now."

His black-as-night eyebrows raised, and he pushed my rapier back towards me. "I wouldn't wield another person's weapon, not even to admire the blade. Show me," He explained, and I accepted, flipping it back over.

My right hand rested on the hilt, tensed, and pulled it out smoothly, the edge against the sheath making that iconic, beautiful 'shiing' sound. I spun and waved it experimentally a few times, before holding it up to Angeal to examine and criticise.

I examined his face carefully as he held the end delicately and looked it over, but he gave nothing away.

He gave it _all_ away though, when he had one thing to ask; "Who crafted this?"

I smirked, and shook my head. "My father. He quit the trade years ago, though. This was his last weapon," I replied fondly, running my fingers up and down the base of the blade.

Angeal seemed to accept this, removed his glove and nodded at me while reaching his hand to the blade. I held it still with both hands on the teal hilt, as he slowly ran his fingertip over the edge; only a second later, he pulled his hand back and examined his fingertip.

He held it up for me and everyone else to see; with the deadly thin scrape marring his fingertip and a small droplet of blood trying to escape. He looked at me with a grin. "I think we best stick to the standard SOLDIER swords, right Blue?" he said, and I laughed and scratched the back of my neck, before nodding in agreement.

He gestured Jack and I back to stand with our classmates, and we nodded, with me putting my rapier back into its sheath and going to stand with Zack, Will and Ash, with Zack instantly nudging me and chattering in my ear excitably.

"Now, today is all about deciding and choosing which will be your best weapon! This isn't exact, and for some of you it _will_ change as you go through training and we figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lie. But, you need to find a weapon you feel would be best suited to you, keeping in mind that SOLDIERs will begin with standard issue longswords, and other weapons will have to be purchased."

Angeal gestured to me and Jack as he continued to speak, "You've seen how far ahead your two classmates Riley and Amell are, so you need to catch up to them, right?" He grinned, and gestured around him; the entire room was filled with all sorts of different weapons (all blunt or without ammunition, obviously). "Go on, find your weapon!"

I thought this was a very unorthodox way of teaching, but hey, it wasn't any of my business. I put a hand on my hip, raising my eyebrow, but thought this was a girly response and folded my arms instead.

Not knowing what to do, I took a glance at Riley, only to see him meandering over to the ranged weapons on the right side of the room and examine them closely. Before I had the chance to consider joining him, Zack had grabbed my elbow and pulled me over to the opposite side, where countless different styles of swords were placed. Will, clearly of the same mindset, quickly followed, and Ash followed slowly - though I could see her peering over longingly at the spear resting in the corner.

I spun her to look at me with a hand on her shoulder, and she gasped a little. "Go. I'll meet up with you in a sec, okay?" I encouraged, taking a glimpse of Zack and Will's starry gaze as they looked over the large array of swords. "I'll look after these two."

She swivelled to look at the spear for a second, before looking back at me, grinning. She nodded and bounced over excitably, and I chuckled, walking over beside Zack and taking an appraising look at the swords.

A gasp to my right attracted my attention, and I turned to look as Zack's gloved hand reached out for a midnight blue hilt, attached to a...

An excessively huge broadsword that Angeal, despite his own he carried day and night, would struggle to lift. A man twice the size of Zack couldn't lift it, never _mind_ use it as anything but a paper weight.

"Zack, don't..." warned Will, on Zack's other side and clearly seeing sense in the sheer hugeness of it all.

He let out a huff of breath as he grabbed it with one hand and attempted to lift it. When it didn't lift from the table, and his wrist was radically bent out of shape as a result, he did not do what anyone else would do; because anyone else is sane. Zack grinned determinedly. His eyes got that resolute, strong-willed glint that I recognised in myself when I took on an impossible task.

His other hand grabbed the hilt, and with a heave, he squatted and pulled. He strained. He grunted. His face went a little bit red. And he gave up.

When he let go of the hilt, he gasped, and bent double. "You alright, Zack?" I asked, concerned, and rubbed his back as he gripped his stomach.

He said nothing, and then, in a quiet, high-pitched voice, he whined, "I'm in a lot of pain..."

"If it's any consolation," I continued to rub his back, and raised an eyebrow, "you looked ridiculous."

He looked up at me for a moment, before sighing and straightening up. "I appreciate that, Cobe."

Will picked up a tough-looking spadroon, looked at it carefully and turned it over in his hands for a little while. "Maybe you should go for something a little more in the size of a sword, less of, I don't know, a planet?" he advised sarcastically, leaning against the table with the light sword in his hands.

I agreed with a grin, "Yeah, you should listen to Mr. Spadroon over there." I gestured to Will with my thumb, as both boys looked to me with a raised eyebrow.

Will blinked, and looked down at the sword, waving it a little, before stopping. "Hang on, _that's_ what this is called? A s_pudoon_? That's a terrible name!" Will proclaimed, staring at the sword with a disgusted expression, before putting it back on the table.

"_Spadroon_. And really, you're going to leave it because of that?" I enquired, with raised eyebrows. Is Will a child or _what_?!

He shrugged, and I rolled my eyes, before sorting through a little handful of rapiers I found.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Zack look over his huge broadsword longingly for a moment, before shrugging and moving on. He soon found a similar one, though much smaller and actually _usable_, so he carefully gripped it with both hands (clearly remembering back to nearly breaking his own wrist by accident before) and slowly picked it up from the table.

It was clearly a lot lighter, and Zack soon got a good grip on it, holding it and actually looking like he could do some damage. He swung it around experimentally, and grinned. "Yup, this is mine," he claimed, resting it point-first on the floor and nodding at Will and me.

I smirked. "So, what, are you going to _buy_ that? Even though you won't be using it for weeks, even months?" I enquired, and he slouched, putting it back on the table.

"I don't have _that_ much money..." he moaned miserably, and Will nudged him.

"Never mind that, it's dull anyway. This is just to find out; by the time you'll want it or need it, then you'll have enough money anyway! Especially if you become a Turk, they get way more money than SOLDIERs do," he persuaded, waggling his eyebrows and grinning.

Zack looked up, smirking. "Nice try, Turk-wannabe, but I'm joining SOLDIER. And besides, they don't earn _that_ much more," he rebuked, nudging Will back.

As Will and Zack continued to argue about the wages of certain Shinra employees ("Turks wear those spiffy suits, of course they earn more!" "Don't even think about telling me that that Reno guy earns more than Angeal does.") I grabbed a long, thin, curved sword from the table, inspecting it.

"Will," I called for his attention, and threw the blade at him; he nearly fumbled it, the butterfingers, but managed to keep a hold of it. "Try that out."

He looked down at it admirably, held the hilt with both hands and waved it around. It was around the same length as the spadroon, only this was curved as opposed to the spadroon's deadly straight blade, perhaps slightly longer than the spadroon, and didn't end at an exact point.

Will seemed pretty comfortable with it, and I nodded with a smirk. "That's a saber. Find anything wrong with it, and seriously, you will not live to see 'Survival Training'." Because I knew he was looking forward to that teacher just as much as I was.

The dirty-blonde head bobbed, and he grinned. "Don't worry, I prefer this anyway, to that s_karoon_ anyway."

My eye twitched. "_Spadroon_."

"Yeah, whatever, Coby!" Will brushed me off, and grinned at his new sword.

And as Zack and Will stared at each other with reflected smirks - clearly a challenge, as they both held their swords just a _little_ tighter - I rolled my eyes, decided not to be here, and wandered off to see how Ash was getting on.

And I found her, just a moment later, talking to the twins from yesterday; her and them seemed to be chatting away, getting on well, discussing their chosen weapons. Her and one of the twins seemed to be very deep in conversation, Ash holding a silvery-blue double-ended spear in front of her - though she seemed to be paying little attention to it - while the other twin occasionally added his own comment to their conversation, fingering a pair of gauntlets on the table.

"Ah, Coby!" she greeted, and I couldn't help a warrant thought cross my head - wondering just when everyone had started calling me that. I didn't much mind; Zack had always called me that, as had Will, but I didn't think Ash had ever called me that.

_Well, it's better than Blue,_ I thought in good humour, thinking of Angeal's well-established nickname for me.

All eyes turned to me, Ash's dark-coloured eyes welcoming, and the two twins' strikingly-green eyes holding an expression I couldn't understand. They looked pretty interested in me, which was weird, but was that...a _challenge_, in their eyes?

Oh, I hoped so!

"I'm sure you know Cobalt, you were in the same first class, right?" Ash first introduced, and while she was looking at me with a smile, I saw the two twins gain smiles, and nod; all at the same time. I freaked, but turned it into a grin, to greet them. "Coby, this here's the Reagan twins, Brandon and Michael," she explained, first pointing to the friendly one she had been chatting with, and then to the much tougher and scarier looking one.

"Heh, hi," I greeted, still feeling quite scared, and slowly waving a hand in their direction. Their eyes flickered to each other for a moment, before turning back to me, both with a smirk that I simply couldn't ignore. I slightly turned towards Ash, trying to get the two twins out of my eyesight, and speculated in a low voice, mumbling around my teeth still clenched in that kooky grin, "So, you all good friends now?"

She smiled, not noticing my eyes desperately begging for her to get me out of the situation. "Yeah! They helped me find this spear - what do you think?" Without my consent, the much-too-excited girl shoved the weapon into my hands, waiting eagerly for my analysis.

Four green eyes were glued to me like I were their next meal, and I awkwardly swung it around, attempting to find some sort of balance with it that would help Ash make her decision of whether or not this was the right type of weapon for her.

After a moment, I shrugged, and handed it back to her, shaking my head. "What, don't you like it?" she asked, crestfallen.

I raised an eyebrow, and genuinely curious, I asked, "Why does it matter to you what I think?"

She blinked, looking confused herself. "I don't know," she replied after a moment, and my other eyebrow joined its companion as it curved upwards. "Well, you've had weapons training for years, I kind of figured you'd be able to tell me if you thought it was good for me..." she rambled, and I smiled awkwardly.

I twisted it in my hands again, and once again, shook my head, pressing the weapon back into her confused hands. "I trained with swords and daggers," I informed her honestly, "not spears, or anything else. I don't know how to handle that weapon, but I have to tell you; it's a good look."

Her frown quickly turned into a smile, and she spun it slightly in her hands - not noticing as Brandon and I had to step back to avoid being skewered - and struck a cool pose with the spear. I grinned and applauded, and Brandon nodded to her, before looking at me with a predatory grin. Michael never even looked away for a moment, and I had to wonder which was creepier; Brandon's smirk, or Michael's scowl?

After a moment, I grimaced a little and decided it had to be Michael, but quickly swivelled at Angeal's shout.

Of course, what was I expecting? Angeal was holding Zack by the scruff, the latter looking defeated and miserable, his miniature broadsword hanging in his grip. Opposite him was a raving Will, holding his broken-in-half saber in his hands.

I was nervously edging into the near-silent crowd of Cadets, hoping to not be brought into this argument, when Will pointed directly at me with the hilt and part of the blade - _crap_. "...And this was the sword Coby picked out for me, and you RUINED it, you dolt!" he complained, and eyes turned to me as I put a hand to my forehead, trying once again to sink into the background.

I should've expected what would happen next, with my luck, despite my attempts to clear my name. "I have nothing t-"

"You three," Angeal commanded, drowning out my complaints, looking heavily between Zack, Will and myself. "At my office, five minutes after class. Don't be late."

Miserably and dejectedly, I somewhat copied Zack's stance as Angeal left (despite that class wasn't actually over yet) and hung my head, presumably _also_ looking like a kicked puppy. Zack put his broadsword back up onto the table, and walked over to me, before we both glared at a similarly-miserable Will.

Then, I stopped for a moment, and turned to the dark-haired Cadet next to me. "Hang on, this is your fault!" I accused, narrowing my eyes, and with Will joining us, all three of us soon got into an argument, wildly accusing each other.

"It's Will's fault for starting the fight!" -Zack.

"It's Zack's fault for being a noob!" -Will.

"It's Will's fault for including me in something I wasn't a part of!" -Me.

"It's Coby's fault for choosing my small sword!" -Will _and_ Zack.

"..._WHAT_?!" -Yeah, that was me.

It wasn't long before class ended, with each of us throwing the blame haphazardly at each other, and soon we found ourselves standing outside the classroom, looking at each other helplessly.

Our unspoken question; "_Where's Angeal's office?_"

* * *

It must've been well later than five minutes after class, where Angeal was explaining the opportunity that had arisen to his two closest friends, Sephiroth and Genesis.

_First comes explaining,_ Angeal considered, a_nd then comes persuading._

He explained the entire situation to his comrades, and then made his proposition;

"I say, as an experiment of sorts, we train these three boys under ourselves, to see how much quicker they develop under our tutelage than that of ordinary Cadets."

As eager as Angeal was with the plan, Genesis was his equal in apathy. "Really, Angeal? What makes you think either me or Sephiroth wants to involve ourselves with training...children?" he enquired lazily, his lack of interest quite clear.

Instead of Angeal having to fight his corner, Sephiroth spoke up, "Actually, I have permitted to take one of the classes."

Both his friends' eyes expanded; Genesis in disbelief, Angeal in satisfaction. If Sephiroth was with him, then Genesis, while reluctant, would hopefully follow. "Why?" Genesis asked, in genuine curiosity; but both his friends could sense his undercurrent of displeasure in this conversation.

Sephiroth glanced at Angeal, and completely deadpan, mockingly replied, "I wanted to find out more about Angeal's new friends." Genesis roared with laughter, and Angeal pinched the bridge of his nose.

Eager to get this conversation to wind to a close, Angeal decisively questioned, "So, will you do this with me?" He first raised his eyebrow at Sephiroth, who smirked and nodded, and then gave a pointed look to Genesis.

The auburn-haired First Class glared for a moment, before sighing laboriously - and nodding. "Don't make me regret this," he warned the smiling Angeal, before leaning against his desk, crossing one foot over the other and taking out his book of LOVELESS, reading the lines as if it eased his temper.

Angeal stood straight and folded his arms in the centre of the office, and tensely waited for a few minutes, before finally asking, "Where _are_ they?"

Sephiroth looked up at the clock. "It has been eighteen minutes since you called us down here, Angeal," he observed, and looked back at Angeal.

His eyebrows curved down, and as an amused snort came from behind LOVELESS, Angeal glared. Genesis looked up from over his book, and rolled his eyes with exaggerated flourish, snapping the poetry book closed and tossing his head to the right. "Have you forgotten it's three boisterous _Cadets_ we're dealing with?" he reminded, and folded his arms at Angeal, who now looked slightly embarrassed. "Did you forget to give them directions?"

At Angeal's lack of response, Genesis barked a quick laugh, and Sephiroth frowned. "Did you think this plan through, Angeal?" he questioned, with a slight, noticeable tone of irritability.

Angeal looked to the ground. "It was a hastily-made plan, I will admit," he informed the floor.

"Hmph." Sephiroth was not impressed.

Genesis, meanwhile, was having a whale of a time, listening to Sephiroth tell Angeal off like a stern mother hen. He knew better than to tease Sephiroth for it, of course, so he did the next best thing, and teased Angeal. "I hope your students will have better organisation skills than you do, Angeal," he mocked.

Angeal folded his arms, and looked at Genesis with contempt. "They're...resourceful. They'll find their way up here, no matter of how long it wil take. _If_ you can wait that long," he argued back, his mind set. Angeal knew these three kids were worth his time.

Carmichael, the first one, the blonde. Zack and him got in a fight, simply all in the fun, and Angeal was watching from the beginning, since the moment Blue had clearly decided he wanted nothing to do with the two and wandered off. He saw how they clashed swords (no matter how blunt) and Will's clear potential when he wielded that saber. It was quite clear, to the trained eye, that he was acting on instinct alone in their tiny duel, but there was definitely something there that could be well built on.

Fair, with the black porcupine-head of hair, was clearly much too ostentatious for his own good. Clearly Genesis would _not_ be the ideal teacher...

However, despite his grandiose attitude - and Angeal found himself rather loathe admitting it - he was surprisingly good with that broadsword he'd picked up. With only a few swipes with that thing, he had snapped that saber in two. Granted, sabers aren't the most reinforced weapons, especially not that practice one, and Zack had put quite a lot of effort in those blows, more than he'd be hoping to in a real fight; but that was only improving his capabilities, not teaching him all new skills.

Then, it would seem that Amell - _Blue _- was the most experienced, with five years of sword training behind him, his own weapon already, and seemed to know his swords well, from what Angeal had seen. Still, there was that niggling question...questions, actually. One, who taught him (who are his parents?) and two, what sort of training? Would his unexplained training benefit him greatly...or hinder, if he was taught wrong and couldn't get out of the habit?

Angeal explained all of this to his two other friends, both of which listened intently, wanting to know just what their usually-sensible friend had gotten them into. And with this information, Angeal started to decide just who of his friends would teach which of his students.

"Since Zack seems to appreciate a broadsword more than anything," Angeal elected, "I propose he be my student."

He paused for a moment to allow either of his friends to voice any objections. Sephiroth stayed silent, seeing the sense in Angeal's proposition. Of course, Genesis had to get his opinion in, and huffed, folding his arms irritably. "You're the only one who knows these kids. You've probably picked the only one who knows how to _pick up_ a sword..."

In Genesis' scathing retort, Angeal shook his head. Just how many people could Genesis manage to insult in one simple statement? "I've told you all I know. Because Blue has had training - and he uses his own rapier, by pure simple luck - could you teach him then?" he asked sarcastically, but still tried to keep the peace.

Genesis grumbled, dipping his head and looking off to the side, but said nothing against him.

Angeal sighed, a cross between relief and exasperation, and turned to Sephiroth. "It seems that leaves you with Will," he surmised, and Sephiroth nodded, keeping his thoughts to himself.

After a moment of silence between the trio, Genesis' head snapped up. "What's his name, anyhow? Bluey's?" he asked simply, at Angeal's vacant look.

He had to think for a moment. "Amell." Genesis sent his childhood friend an unimpressed look, and Angeal fumbled. "Uh, Cobalt, Amell."

One of Sephiroth's silver eyebrows shot up, curious, but his mouth remained closed. Genesis snorted, and nodded in acceptance, deciding not to reply or mock Angeal. Something Angeal was quite grateful for.

They shared looks, Genesis' mocking and Angeal's warning, when Sephiroth shifted, and straightened up at his position against Angeal's desk. His two friends focused, and did the same as they heard stumbling footsteps and an angry voice further down the corridor, approaching.

Listening to the abusive, obnoxious yelling of a familiar voice, Angeal raised an eyebrow as they were clearly approaching his office. It was quite clear this person was guiding them to his office, and none-too willingly. As the yelling only got louder, Angeal couldn't help but wonder what that troublesome threesome had gotten themselves into this time.


	4. Innocent Explorations

Enjoying the story so far? I should hope so...and the numbers _are_ making me smile, considering I started posting, what, half a month ago?

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Cliffhanger? Naw, this story clearly isn't serious enough to have a _cliffhanger_...

You guys didn't think I'd do it, huh? HUH? For everyone who believed I couldn't do cliffhangers...Man, you must've been om-nom-nomming on your fingernails until now, the way I left Chapter 3! :D

Noxy the Proxy: Many thanks for that review, I appreciate it!

* * *

4 - Innocent Explorations

"WHY SHOULD I WASTE MY DAY OF PEACE AND QUIET BUNDLING A STUPID, IDIOTIC, NO-BRAINED KID AROUND THE SHINRA HQ?! THIS MUST BE THE ONLY DAY I GET A BREAK IN, IN LIKE, TEN _YEARS_, YO! THEN SOME KIDS INTRUDE ON MY PRIVATE TIME, AND SUDDENLY IT BECOMES _MY_ RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE 'EM WHEREVER THEY WANT TO GO, _WITHOUT_ ANY WRITTEN PERMISSION OR PROOF THAT THEY _SHOULD_ BE GOING! I'M THE BEST DARN TURK THERE _IS_ AT THE MOMENT, AND I'M PLAYING _ESCORT_! I SHOULD'A TIED YOU UP IN A SACK AND _MAILED_ YOU TO ANGEAL'S OFFICE! AND I CAN'T BELIEVE TSENG... '**_OOOOH_**_, RENO! SURELY YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO, IT'S YOUR DAY OFF! BESIDES, THESE __**KIIIIIDS**__ WILL BE __**BETTER**__ THAN __**YOOUUUUUU**__ IN A _**MONTH**!'"

No matter how freaked out I was, I couldn't help snickering at the Turk's woeful impersonation of his superior, whose voice definitely didn't sound so high-pitched and shrilly and..._woozy_ as Reno made it sound. Zack and Will, trailing along behind us, erupted into fits of laughter as well, but quickly silenced just as the fuming redhead swivelled his head to look at them over his shoulder. He gave my arm a jerk, and I quickly silenced my own amusement as well.

"So, what, while HE has NOTHING BETTER to do than FUSS over some century-old REPORTS - something he's doing probably just to LOOK BUSY and to ANNOY YOURS TRULY - he sends me off on a WILD GOOSE CHASE with THREE EXCITABLE **KIDS** WHO ARE MORE LIKE **PUPPY-DOGS**!"

As the redhead continued to rage, proving his stereotypical appearance to be sadly true, I found myself phasing out from his nonsensical monologue, and remembering back on just how I managed to get myself into this situation.

...

Zack, Will and I had been hopelessly wandering around the Shinra HQ for what felt like hours now, but probably was no more than ten minutes. Constantly finding time to bicker between ourselves and blame one another (with most of the blame being put on me, as was quickly and irritatingly becoming the norm) between pushing open random doors and trying to find Angeal's office or _anyone_ that could guide us there; our standards clearly had dramatically dropped since the start of our exploration.

Just as Zack and I were arguing over who should be the next person to open the door (he was certain it was my turn, while I maintain the last door he opened was, like, _five_ doors ago) Will gasped, and pointed down the corridor. We followed the finger with our eyes, and looked to the end of the corridor; to an open elevator, playing that easy-listening, cutesy elevator music as they always do.

Those glass elevator doors waiting for someone to press a button...it almost seemed like an invitation, like it was waiting for us.

"Let's go!"

"Me first!"

"No, me!"

Zack and I continued our argument in a different context, as we both started to scramble towards the elevator, using dirty tactics to hold the other up. Will simply strode past us, but Zack grabbed him and yanked him back, intent to be the first one to the elevator.

It was at this point I remembered that my rapier, sharp enough to draw blood from the fingertip of the almighty Commander Angeal, was within easy reach, and I leapt forward out of Zack's grasp, drawing the blade and holding it out to Zack, who froze with Will's head in a headlock.

"Don't make me do this, Zack," I warned in a cool voice, and swiftly turned, sheathing my blade over my shoulder and dashing headlong for the elevator. I knew Zack was right on my heels, starting off even before I'd retracted my blade, but all I needed was that little distance and a moment to get ahead.

The doors started to slide closed, and Will let out a strangled "No!" still recovering from Zack's rough grab around the throat. My eyes narrowed, already knowing I wouldn't reach the elevator in time, so I did what any desperate and somewhat mad strategist would do.

I pulled my rapier and sheath from over my shoulder, bent over while running and slid it across the floor. It slid through the doors a few moments before they closed completely, and Zack echoed Will's "No!"

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics, and watched as the sword and sheath bounced against the back of the elevator, the hilt coming to rest just at the doors of the elevator. The glass doors bounced against the hilt, and moved back from the sword to the sides, and the two onlookers let out a joyous "Woo-hoo!" as I retrieved my sword and swung it over my shoulder.

I smirked, feeling particularly self-righteous as Zack and Will joined me, and let the elevator doors slide closed, bringing us down the Shinra building. A moment later, and we all burst into laughs, confused about our own antics. Another moment later, I enquired, "Where do you think this elevator's going?"

"For all our trouble," Will replied, still giggling weakly, "this thing had better open straight to Angeal's office."

At that, our excitement was sobered up a little; simply at the thought that we'd be in trouble at the end of this adventure. I had to admit, I was miserable, until Zack bounced back, "_For all our trouble_, it should be opening to a room full of food and cute girls!"

While Will grinned his agreement, I grimaced. "Eeuug-" My disgusted sound was cut off at Will and Zack's identically confused raised eyebrow in my direction, and I attempted to play it off with a chuckle. My deformed face, partway between dismay, horror and glee, was not complimented (or taken away from, as the case probably is) by what I said, which sounded a little something like this;

"Eeeeeeuuugggghh-eeh-heh-hehh..."

After a moment of extremely uncomfortable silence, Zack and Will looked at each other, threw their heads back and laughed, finding my discomfort hilarious. I folded my arms and huffed stubbornly, but said nothing as the elevator slowly came to a stop...at some floor. Zack was in the way of the buttons, and shoved me out too quickly for me to see which floor.

It was pretty strange how it didn't ask for identification, so I figured it wasn't that important of a floor, as Will, Zack and I stepped out and took a quick look around the relatively normal-looking floor.

I thought that for all of about two seconds, until a huge guy in a suit looked - presumably, he was wearing sunglasses - at us for a moment, speculating, before striding past us into the elevator.

That man triggered something in Will, as he stared openly at him, in pure awe. Zack and I both understood. The black suit gave him away; he was a Turk.

And _man_, did he look menacing. Because when I said huge, I meant, _HUGE_.

The three of us started to wander through the floor, with Will nearly hyperventilating in glee. "We're on the Turks' floor! The _Turks_!" he whispered it, breathless from delight.

"Amazing," I grumbled, not quite so pleased. I knew exactly what this meant.

If we meet one with a nasty temper, BAM! No questions asked, the three of us disappear, and no one knows where we went. This could only happen to me.

We came to an office door, and I tried twisting the handle - it was locked. Will tried the next one, with similar results, and Zack the same. The next door was slightly ajar.

I sighed miserably, looking at the floor and expecting, more than seeing, Zack and Will staring at me. "Alright, I get it, my turn."

Clenching my fists to reassure myself, I peeked around the door, and slowly pushed it further open, peering at the room.

Strangely enough, it looked less like an office, and much more like...a room, of an apartment? Yup, this looked much more like a _home_ than could be possible for the infamous Turks to work in. Did they..._live_, in the building?

I suppose, it wasn't that weird, considering us Cadets lived in little apartment rooms like this, but I thought that everyone apart from Cadets lived on their own around Midgar, or something. Maybe the Turks, do they have to stay in the Shinra building _all the time_?

Zack and Will were peeking in behind me as I slowly entered, and none of us dared to break the silence in the room, for fear of...something. I wasn't sure, but I felt like something was about to happen...something I didn't want to happen, I bet.

I didn't have time, though, to escape from something I wasn't sure of. Because, at that moment, a door opened opposite me, and out came...

Oh, _Gaia_. Look away now, Sapphire! Don't _blush_, oh Gaia...

...It's not that bad. But in the heat of the moment, coupled with my one-of-a-kind circumstances, I couldn't help closing my eyes and turning away, blood rushing to my face, as a cute redhead Turk called Reno paused in the doorway to a steamed-up room, staring at me. Surprisingly, there was no animosity in his gaze (yet...) he simply looked a little surprised and more curious than anything.

His arms were still holding a white towel around his neck, obviously having just stopped towelling his dripping, spiky hair dry, and another towel hung loosely at his hips. And while I couldn't see anything explicit, the implications and situation were enough to enter my face into the reddest, oddest-shaped tomatoes contest.

I'd win. His hair would come second. Will's face would be a close third.

After much too long of this situation, with absolutely no sound passing between the four of us, he cleared his throat. "What...are you kiddies doing in my apartment?" was his simple and understandable question, and I stepped back closer to Will and Zack as we three traded glances.

Consecutively, Will and I decided it was Zack's turn to take the rap, and we nudged him forward, past me, into the room with our elbows. He stared openly for a moment, and as an instinctive reaction, his right hand twitched before heading up to the back of his hair. "We're looking for Angeal's office," he explained, with an impressive amount of confidence that made me wonder whether he knew just what would happen if this situation went bottoms-up.

The Turk swayed to the side, folding his arms and furrowing his eyebrows. Another silent, pregnant moment passed between all four of us, before the Turk responded. "You're...kind of...at the completely _wrong_ end of the building, yo," he slowly pointed out, turning his back to look through a drawer as he restarted towelling his hair dry.

The three of us shared glances, and I stepped a little forward, sharing in Zack's confidence. "Would you mind taking us there?" I ventured boldly, and as he looked over his shoulder at me, instantly filled with incredulous anger, I squeaked out a "P-Please?"

He shoved on an off-white shirt with a huge, faded brown stain that could only be chocolate, and stomped towards me from the other side of the room, wringing his hair towel in his hands in fury. I shrunk back until the wall and I were practically one, and he shoved his face _much_ too close to mine for me to feel comfortable. "Tell me _why_ the hell I should feel obligated to do that?" he growled, his teeth bared.

Any second now, I could imagine him reeling back, and looking at me with a cocky smirk, saying, "Hey, you're a GIRL!" After a few moments, he seemed all too furious to realise the obvious signs, so I stuttered awkwardly for a few moments, and said the only thing that came to mind after watching those funny movies about pirates Ash had brought from home and played last night. "P-P-Parlay?"

I could see Will and Zack raise their eyebrows in humoured disbelief in the background, and I could see their concern as the redhead reeled back from my face, grinding his teeth together.

After a moment, I was amazed, as the Turk pulled on some trousers, grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the room. Desperately hoping my (not extremely well thought out) tactic had worked, I sent urgent glances to Will and Zack as they trailed along behind us, trying to tell them that right now, despite my usually heroic and altruistic attitude towards these matters, I needed their immediate help.

We burst through another door, and I heard an exasperated sigh from somewhere in front as the Turk thrust me in front of him, making me stumble and catch myself after a few feet, only to be looking at who I knew was the head of the Turks - a dark haired Wutaiian man whose face was rather infamous for being unable to portray actual human emotion, Tseng - and I took a few uneasy steps back with a terrified grin that was more like baring my teeth, until I nearly bumped into the redhead again.

Have you ever heard the expression 'between a rock and a hard place'? Well, from the clear annoyance of the head of the Turks in front of me and the blind rage of the Turk behind me, I found myself altering the phrase to suit my current situation; 'between certain death and certain death'. Not a nice place to be, but hey, I'd rather be here than in either of their...death-inducing clutches.

"Tseng," the redhead growled from a little too close behind me, but I restrained my jump to try to relax a little more. "This kiddie and his two lackeys found their way into my room, looking for Commander _Angeal's office_."

The redhead shoved me forward ever-so-slightly, but the strength behind it made me stumble forward to regain my footing, closer to Tseng, who was sat behind his desk with his elbows resting on the table and his hands in the typical 'pyramid of evil' shape in front of his nose. His sharp eyes examined me critically, and while I was strangely relieved that he no longer looked as irritated, I really didn't appreciate this new analysing look he had. On him, it was way too creepy - like he instantly knew everything about me.

All thanks to my mother - a Turk herself before her passing - I knew what to do in this situation; look professional and make like I have oodles more confidence than I actually do. So, I straightened myself up, trying to look bigger than my usual miserable height and build, joined my hands behind me (hidden fingers crossed in my fisted palms) and stared blankly at Tseng, which only served to make him look, if anything, even more intrigued. Uh, _crap_...

"What are your names, Cadets?" he questioned after wholly examining me, and got to his feet - making me feel totally incompetent as he stood pretty much head and shoulders above me - and turning his back, heading for a filing cabinet to the left of him.

It took a few moments for his order to sink in, for all three of us, and when it did, our responses all jumbled together, with none of us sure how exactly to respond.

Myself, I was momentarily a fool, and introduced myself as, "Sa-Cobalt Amell."

Zack, being much too excitable about being in trouble and someone else taking the rap for it, was happy to shout out, "Call me Zack!"

Will, still stumped and completely star struck about meeting all these wonderful, famous Turks, I imagine felt quite silly as he introduced himself, "Wi-Wi-Wil-Wiillll...Carmichael..."

So much so, after a loud jumble of introductions in the otherwise silent office, poor old Will was left stuttering out his last name after Zack and I had not only stopped, but processed what happened, and turned to look at him.

With both the Turks now examining him as well, Zack and I had the decency to cringe on his behalf, and he cleared his throat, his face turning red, before swallowing and reintroducing himself, infinitely calmer, "Will Carmichael."

Zack, ever the confident one, pointed to his chest with a thumb, and said, "Zack Fair!" simply, with a charming smirk that, in any other situation, I would've swooned over.

As things were, all I wanted was to punch his lights out. This rather violent feeling gave me confidence, and I turned to Tseng with a small smile that came surprisingly easy, and accidentally probably looked a whole lot more arrogant than I wanted to look as I spoke my false name, "Cobalt Amell."

Tseng, to my surprise, did not bite my head off; simply gave a very, VERY small smile, and turned back to search through the filing cabinet, clearly completely ignoring us. After a few extremely strange moments of this, I looked back to share glances with my two comrades who looked similarly stumped, and caught a similar expression on Reno's face before he smirked confidently.

"So, what should I do with them, Tseng?" he questioned, still with that intimidating grin, grabbing my shoulder and jerking me back slightly. What _was_ it with this guy and shoving and yanking people everywhere?!

He lifted something out of the cabinet and turned back to the desk, setting a HUGE stack of folders onto it, all the pages and files within all exceptionally neat and tidy. I could feel myself staring, but I couldn't do anything to stop, because that stack looked like it'd be heavier than _me_!

He rested his hands on the desk and leaned over it, and I straightened up as another heavy examining (staring) session took place between him and me, leaving me to stare at the air next to his head and the three behind me to stare at me - only in bewilderment, not in interest, which I found more comforting, weirdly enough.

Eventually, approximately three years later, he sat down into his seat, and opened the file, taking out a small folder within and beginning to read through it. Another moment later, and Tseng gave his calm reply; "You'll do as they ask."

The Turk behind me wasn't the only one who made a double-take at that.

"I mean," he continued, with a small smirk directed at his reading material, "it _is_ your day off. And anyway, these Cadets will be better at their jobs than you are at yours in less than a year." I had nothing to say to that, but I was fairly disgruntled at Tseng seemingly signing our death sentences, as I could practically hear the steam blowing out from Reno's ears behind me.

The leader of the Turks waved his hand in our direction, and that was all it took for Reno to grab my arm roughly and drag me out of there, Will and Zack trailing behind as we left Tseng to read in peace - and as soon as the door swung shut behind us, Reno began his ranting as he led us back the way we came.

...

After suffering through all of that, it was all I could do to keep up with Reno without him pulling my arm out of its designated socket, and convince myself that Angeal's punishment couldn't _possibly _live up to being any worse than what Zack, Will and I had already been put through. It must've been around half an hour since class ended (excluding the approximate three years Tseng had stared at me that one time) and that could only mean that Angeal had more time to think up a worse punishment for the three of us.

As soon as I thought of that, I wished I hadn't, and suddenly hanging around with Reno seemed a blessing - after all, Angeal looked pretty _furious_ when he stormed out of the classroom.

And who could blame him? Will and Zack got into a completely disallowed fight with weapons, on, what, our third day? Both of them were at fault for breaking Shinra property, and should be rightfully punished...with _death_...and leave Ash and me to live out our SOLDIER lives in contented peace.

Because right now, I felt cruelly over-punished by Angeal's mini-rage, Reno's MASSIVE-rage _and_ Tseng's horrible mental mind-screwing torture, for something I didn't do. Even that glimpse from the big Turk who went in the elevator after us made me feel unlawfully disciplined. HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO WE WERE! Life was so unfair...

...Either I need to think about counselling for my overly-emotional current state, I was in a bad place on my 33-day cycle and needed to watch an uplifting movie, or Tseng's mental torture really _had_ broken something that should be connected to something else upstairs.

Personally, I hoped it was the first. And it isn't often I wish for the need to go to counselling. What does _that_ tell you? Eesh...

Inevitably, we soon arrived outside what must've been Angeal's office, because Reno pulled up short, and pushed me hard, just as I recoiled from his emergency stop.

What happened next...well, it was kind-of a blur.

The worst headache I've ever had broke out right at the top of my head, as I heard a splintering, ear-drum-bursting crash that could only be my head exploding.

All I saw, was a flash of white light as the explosion happened, I caught a vague vision of the polished Shinra floors coming frighteningly close, and then pure black invaded my vision. The reason, I wasn't too sure.

After moments of silence, I heard a rather intrigued sounding person from behind me go, "WOW his head was _tough_! Ha! This could be a game!"

"I'm pretty sure it's already a game. It's called _Conkers_." That voice sounded less than impressed, coming from the same direction.

As well from there, came a high-pitched outcry of, "You broke my friend! What is _wrong_ with you?!"

One thing registered about what happened - I was smashed in the head! - so as I was rolled onto my back, with my last moments of consciousness (despite my long-lost vision) I commanded my right arm into the air, held it in front of me, and shouted out, "TELL MY CELL BRAINS I SLEEPING ABOUT THE SORRY ARRANGEMENTS!"

"...Heh, Cadet Conkers..."

Everything went a little blank after that, for a little while, and the pain came back when I felt myself being shaken. "Coby...come on dude, wake up!"

I abruptly sat up, pointing a finger into the air, about to proclaim something - but the moment I opened my eyes, the light that invaded my pupils seemed to make my head explode again, and I slumped back down, groaning and clutching my head.

The voice next to me, who I now recognized as Will, muttered to me, "Come on Coby, you aren't doing the rest of us any favours, bud..."

A voice I didn't recognize spoke up next, with a strange self-righteousness to it that could only come from being awfully posh or plain epic, "Am I allowed to laugh _now_, Angeal?"

'_Oh, Gaia, I'm not still in THIS situation, am I?_'

"Yep," Angeal was quick to reply, and was quickly followed up by a chuckle from the other.

I wearily raised a hand to balance myself on Will's shoulder and pushed myself to sit up groggily, the sword on my back straightening out next to me that I suddenly realized I could've used to skewer Reno on. When I was finally sitting up on my own, my eyes staring at the ground, I wondered aloud, "Is it over?"

"You wish," that unfamiliar voice came again, and finally, I realized something I should have a long time ago. I _didn't_ know that person.

So, I warily glanced up from the floor, to three sets of black boots on my left side; one surrounded with the ends of a black leather coat, one with red. Due to my mind being a little scrambled, when I should've twigged immediately who at least two of those people were, I didn't know any, and looked right up, squinting at the effort.

When I saw dangerous, bright green eyes staring intently down at me within the infamous veil of silver hair, there was nothing I could do; only squeak in the _manliest_ way possible, jump to my feet and salute so quickly and with such force that I was glad I didn't hit myself with it - it surely would have sent me sprawling to the floor once again.

In a way, for this situation alone, I was glad of my quick reaction time (which came from wearing my very-much-loved straw hat for many months of my childhood around my father, who constantly flicked it off my head to spite me) and the deep-rooted fear that all Cadets have of the General Sephiroth, whose eyes remained riveted to my own with a deadly calm that made Tseng now seem as menacing as cousin Kyro Finch IV, my mother's brother's two-year-old nephew with a preference to shiny things and sporting a hard grip.

Ultimately, he freaked me out a little (as all little children do) and always got what he wanted but was undeniably cute. Cuter than Sephiroth, anyway.

...Why is the General glaring at me?

At his right side stood the person who made this all happen, Angeal, the dark haired man looking vaguely amused, slightly concerned, and oddly smug, his arms folded as he, too, stared at me.

And at his right stood a man leaning against the desk, the one in the red leather, who - from what Zack had told me - was the third friend in the First Class little friendship triangle, Genesis, and who must've been the one to laugh at me. I'd have to keep that in mind...

...If I lived past this meeting, that is.

At my right, Will rose to his feet from where he had been crouching next to me, and I took notice of Zack a little off to the left of me, mouth open and staring, immobile. _Psh_, I preferred Will anyway...traitor.

In the time I was unconscious, Reno seemed to have made like lightning and bolted, because I didn't see him around. Perhaps Angeal scared the Turk off; that would explain his smugness.

After a moment, I let my hand fall, and smacked Zack around the back of the head to snap him out of his gaping, before pulling him over so we three Cadets would be close, were a fight to break out, for example.

Awkward, tense moments passed as the three First Class SOLDIERs examined each of us head to foot, until Angeal nodded to us in a way that made me relax the slightest amount. "Blonde, Blue and Black," he addressed the three of us, and we shared momentary glances before looking back, "allow me to introduce First Class General Sephiroth, and First Class Commander Genesis Rhapsodos. These two will be assisting me in deciding your...punishment."

There was something about Angeal's smirk at that moment, which told me that right now, I should be afraid. I should be very, _very_ afraid.

* * *

When it came to dramatic entrances, Genesis considered himself, and his two First Class associates, to be really rather good. Honestly, when it came down to it, all they needed to really do was walk into a room, and if they so wished, they could sneak in unnoticed, but more often, their presence would fill the room, everyone would turn to look, and Genesis would enjoy basking in the respect and the admiration these people offered.

With a long stride, a billow of his coat and a stern facial expression, the flamboyant and somewhat self-centred First Class Commander could demand the fear and the reverence of absolutely everyone nearby.

In spite of himself, and the occasional time Sephiroth was in a similar and competitive mood (Genesis begrudgingly admitted this was an area where Sephiroth excelled in such a way he could not be challenged) _never_ had he, or his two friends in the room, been on the receiving end of an entry such as this, which attracted more attention than could be possible _without_ inflicting quite a lot of pain.

The door dented inwards, practically exploded off its hinges and landed behind Angeal's desk against the wall on the opposite side of the room. The helmeted Cadet with a shock of messy, bright blue hair sprouting from beneath staggered in, before simply falling at Sephiroth's feet, who straightened up slightly, edging away from the Cadet, his gaze never wavering from the back of the Cadet's head.

Genesis couldn't help his scowl, as the three Cadets and the one responsible for all the drama, the redhead Turk Reno who was little more than a nuisance, engaged in pointless chatter. The Cadet with blue hair - the one currently unconscious and sprawled at Sephiroth's boots - was supposed to be _his_ student. Granted, he had the sword Angeal claimed him to have, strapped to his back, but he was rendered unconscious by a knock to the head.

It was a given that First Class' offices were given doors of one of the strongest metals known on Gaia, about an inch thick, and that Turks are known for packing a punch. Not to mention how furious the aforementioned Turk was, from his ranting down the corridor. But really, if he was expected to teach this _infant_, he'd need to be more resilient than that.

That would be second lesson. Third would be what fights _not_ to pick, but definitely first would be where _not_ to fall. Sephiroth was worshipped enough; he didn't need a child who was to be _his_ student grovelling at his feet.

As far as first impressions went, for the Cadet to the teacher; despite his apparent lack of intelligence, that entrance had embedded itself into his mind - and whether he intended it or not, Genesis was now intrigued enough to ignore all expectations and take on this kid as a student.

Some more mindless chatter later, with Blue finally waking up from his impromptu kip on the office floor, and Angeal eventually got the gathering down to business. He explained what he had planned, Sephiroth and Genesis were silent as they scrutinized the Cadets' reactions closely.

When Angeal explained that they were to be accepted as students, as opposed to being punished, Zack looked thrilled, Cobalt got over his surprise to smirk, but Will looked decidedly awkward.

Will was first told who his tutor would be, and he instantly spoke up, explaining his odd expression - "Actually, I've been wanting to become a Turk, not a SOLDIER." The three First Classes traded glances, before Sephiroth spoke up for the first time, telling the blonde Cadet that he would teach him an appropriate amount before setting him up with a more suitable tutor. Pleasantly, Will looked thrilled at the thought of having the SOLDIER General look over his training personally, despite his embarrassment at possibly disappointing the General, who took it rather well.

Angeal next explained that Cobalt would be trained and tutored by Genesis for the reasons Genesis already knew. Cobalt's reaction both pleased and disappointed the SOLDIER, as the blue-haired Cadet grinned and stuck a hand in Genesis' direction. "It'll be a pleasure working with you, Commander Rhapsodos!" he had enthused, before his wholehearted grin morphed into a more competitive smirk.

Genesis raised an eyebrow at the Cadet, before giving a smirk of his own. "You'll soon change your tune. Don't expect to be getting all of your beauty sleep for the next few years, Amell," he assured darkly. The Cadet's response was to blink and retract his hand, and Genesis discreetly rolled his eyes before reaching into a pocket and taking out his book, instantly starting to read and silently mouth the words his eyes flickered over.

He paid little attention as the last remaining Cadet was told that his teacher would be Angeal - something he seemed just as excitable about as everything else - and with a short, professional dismissal, the three Cadets left the office through the gaping hole the absent door had left.

"My new door will be coming out of your salary, Mr Blue," Angeal hollered after the sheepishly-departing Cadets. A moment later, a gloved thumb-up appeared in the doorway, which quickly disappeared to the sound of jogging feet.

After it became clear there was no one else in the corridor, the three SOLDIERs exited, and started for a new location, to plan for their newest students.


	5. Redecorating the Walls, and Floors

Did everyone have a happy Christmas? I sure did! Man, but I'm still full after eating so much...

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Nor do I own the _Matrix_, I was simply referencing it for comic effect. As you do.

...I'd say so much _turkey_, but honestly, I don't like the stuff much. But hey, I gave it a try!

(Still didn't like it.)

Happy New Year, to all of my readers, and especially to my three reviewers!

1sunfun: Haha, short and sweet! Thank you for that!

* * *

5 - Redecorating the Walls, and Floors...

Today was the day I had been looking forward to, and dreading at the same time.

Waking up as usual that morning, preparing myself for the day and going into the bedroom to wake up Zack (who mumbled something about crackers and cheese, before I pulled him by his ankles off the bed) I only realised what was happening that day when I was pouring out my cereal.

_'Survival Training' day_. EEP!

My cereal went everywhere as I jumped and squeaked in realization, and as if the 'evillest teacher ever' was already in the room, I dropped to my knees and hid under the table with my head between my knees.

I had asked Cliff again at dinner time yesterday; he had decided to come visit our apartment without asking first, apparently. He had confirmed that the teacher is the most evil teacher ever, though was still refusing to give a name. Hence the quotation marks.

Naturally, I was so interested I could explode, but with him being as evil as Cliff describes, well, I was more nervous than I before thought possible. Thus, the whole hiding-under-the-table business.

Hey, nice to meet you! My name is Custard, Cowardly Custard. You can't miss me, I'm the one with the pee stain on the front of my pants. Please don't approach me, I think it's contagious. Sorry.

"Hey, Mr Custard, have your freak-out somewhere else. Some of the rest of us want to have breakfast before our inevitable death at the hands of the Evil One." As you can expect, Will was very supportive.

I bolted upright, hitting my head on the table, and then realising that I had said all that out loud. I collapsed weakly onto the kitchen floor, feeling dizzy with _another_ knock to the head, and told him, "There's meatballs in the fridge, if you're hungry. Ash and I got them 'specially, they were right at the back of the shelf and said something about five years ago..."

I looked up at him as he examined me critically, one eyebrow raised. After a moment, he answered, "Not for breakfast, Coby, really," and poured milk into my bowl of cereal.

"HEY!" By the time I was up and protesting, he was sitting on the other side of the counter, spoon filled with milk and cereal suspended in the air for a second mouthful. I sighed laboriously, and poured myself another bowl.

I turned around for the milk just as Ash emerged from her room, smiling in our direction. "Morning Coby, Will," she greeted us.

"Good morning," we answered simultaneously, me rubbing the top of my helmet with a grimace.

I binned the now empty carton of milk, and reached for another carton in the fridge, turning with it in hand only to see Ash holding my bowl, a spoon in her mouth. Unpleasant snorts of amusement came from Will's direction.

Ash looked between Will, me and the bowl, and put a hand to her mouth. "This was your breakfast! I'm really sorry, Coby!"

I dipped my head, and resignedly shook it. "It's fine; I'll just...have some meatballs."

I could already tell this was going to be a good day.

...

"Man, you guys have 'Strategy and Tactics' class before 'Survival Training'?" Cliff was asking, one or two strings of pasta hanging out one side of his mouth. He sucked it all up, and shook his head in pity. "Heh, the higher-ups sure aren't going easy on you guys this year, not one bit. If any of you are considering quitting, may I suggest you do so _now_?"

Zack was quickly working his way through a full course meal. Ash was enjoying a hamburger, testament to her workout on the treadmill for however long she'd stayed on it for. Will was decidedly lacking in vigour, as he pushed his rice-y, noodle-y food around the plate. I had helped myself to a biscuit not fifteen minutes ago without realising the time, and coupled with the nausea in my stomach, I had completely lost my appetite.

So, I was able to do what my fellow Cadets all wanted to do in that moment, and so I slammed my forehead down onto the table, groaning loudly.

"Problems, Amell?" That voice was distinctly familiar, in a bad way...and so few people called me by my surname.

I slowly looked up, dreading what I knew I'd see...and sure enough, stood facing me a few paces behind Zack's chair was the man in red himself. My new tutor.

I raised an eyebrow, confused with his sudden appearance (and the lack of another certain First Class to do with Zack) and could only think of one reason he'd be here. And so, within moments, I was looking up at him from my position right in front of him on my knees.

"Commander Rhapsodos!" I declared, as he looked down at me with contempt, confusion and mild interest. "Sir, if you were considering taking me out of classes to begin my training beneath you, sir, it is my pleasure to inform you, sir, I would be glad to begin, if you'd just let my teachers know. Sir," I tried to explain, noticing the word I repeated far too many times. I furrowed my brow in irritation at myself and ducked my head, looking to the side.

He looked in the same direction for a moment, looking distant, before looking down at me. His eyes were narrowed, but it was like he was looking straight through me as he said, "_Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul; Pride is lost. Wings stripped away, the end is nigh..._"

We stared at each other for a few moments, until I awkwardly looked at each of my friends, before looking back at the Commander. "Uh...that's a yes?" I delicately enquired, grimacing slightly as I did so.

He seemed to come back to reality, and his one earring swayed as his head jerked slightly. "Get up, Amell," he demanded, and I stumbled to my feet hastily. As soon as I did, he closed his eyes and shook his head. "Fight your own battles, kiddie, or there will be nothing gained from this entire endeavour."

His eyes trained intently on mine, flicking between my eyes for tangible moments before he turned on his heel, his leather coat nearly floating behind him, as he dramatically strode straight out of the cafeteria. I, very slowly, slipped back into my seat next to Cliff, and looked at him with wide eyes.

"You'll get used to him," he assured eventually, patting my shoulder lightly.

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," I brushed it off lightly. "Please, as if I'll survive long enough into today to encounter my psychopath of a teacher for a second time."

...

"I did _not_ get enough food at lunch time. I'm hungry," Zack complained, rubbing his stomach which, despite his meal, was growling and rumbling in protest.

I stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "How on Gaia could you be hungry? You had like, what, four platefuls of food at lunch time...Zack, food doesn't work like that!"

He folded his arms and huffed, jutting out his bottom lip. "Food doesn't work at all. Not for more than five minutes, anyway," he moaned, falling back against the wall outside the 'Strategy and Tactics' classroom.

Moments later, something in gold wrapping flew through the air, and hit the sulking teenager on the head. Ash put a hand on her hip, no expression on her face. "A chocolate bar, hopefully you won't disgrace yourself in front of SOLDIER Winterhold." Zack retrieved the bar from the floor, grinning at the brunette before unwrapping the bar. She quickly warned, "Don't eat it all at once, you'll get hiccups."

I looked at the girl as I considered what she said. "SOLDIER Winterhold? Is he famous, or something?" I enquired, curiosity getting the better of me.

Will leaned against the wall beside Zack on his arm, a self-satisfied smile on his face as he answered for Ash, "SOLDIER First Class, he's been here longer than most people. He's supposed to be pretty legendary, great with all this strategy sort-of thing, and apparently he's really sharp."

"Congratulations," I commented after a moment, interpreting this information as a result of his extra studies; because he wanted to show his ability to be able to become a Turk, and partly in appreciation to Sephiroth, he received access to a lot of (basically harmless and pointless) information about Shinra's past, which he had been thoroughly revising over. After all, _not just anyone gets into the Turks_.

(If you'll remember - because _I_ don't - one Turk specifically was the exception that proved the rule. That one that invented that unfunny, painful game called Cadet Conkers. I heard that story a good few times since then.)

Will caught on my meaning, and winked. "Thanks!" he enthused, pretending to admire his fingernails. It was only seconds later when a man, probably quite far into his fifties, approached, glanced over us, and without a word, strode into the room.

We all shared similar, perplexed looks, and followed him into the room. When we were all settled around the desks, Will to my right and Zack and Ash to my left, and when he started talking about the class and what-have-you, for whatever reason Ash and Zack struck up a conversation.

"You ate it? You ate that entire thing all in one go - you clown, Zack!"

"What? What's wrong with that? It was just a chocolate bar, get over yourself, Ash."

"Zack, you got hiccups after swallowing a mint slightly wrong. I have never in my _life_ met someone more hiccup-prone than you. In this class, you will be murdered."

I joined in with my two gil, "Or, at the very least, given very horrendous preparation for _next_ class, where you will _still _have the hiccups, no doubt."

"Oh gee," Zack cheered quietly in mock-enthusiasm. "Thanks, you guys, for all your support. It means a lot! Now I'd like to - _hic!_"

The hiccup was an instant signal to every single person in the room under twenty. Within half a second every single head was dropped and looking to the floor, in hopes that no one would be singled out. We were a completely conjoined unit, with no one left behind to suffer from contracting hiccups accidentally...did we need this training? I think not!

Moments later, SOLDIER Winterhold continued his talk, and a few of us cautiously looked up to see him no angrier-looking. Zack heaved a silent but visible sigh of relief, and myself, Ash and Will all mimed zipping our lips, to which Zack nodded sheepishly.

"Zack, seriously, no kidding around anymore," I whispered, nearly mouthing the words, as Will at my side responded to something the First Class had said.

"If one of your SOLDIERs is stuck, and to complete the mission as written you have to risk his life, but you know you could rescue him if you altered the original plan...what should you do?" he enquired, phrasing the quite heavy question in a relatively laid-back way, and the veteran SOLDIER dipped his head, a gleam in his eye that could've been either delight or anger - I couldn't tell, not yet.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked.

Will grinned, and nodded as he introduced himself, "Carmichael, sir."

The teacher dipped his head, and ran a hand through his greying black hair. "Strictly speaking, the plan never changes. A professional, one-hundred-percent, by-the-book SOLDIER raised in strict conditions knows we should always stick to the plan."

A Cadet I didn't know the name of spoke up with a question, "But then you're dooming that SOLDIER to die..."

"No one should die, not if it can be prevented, not if you can help," Jack Riley, the guy with the rifle, added with clear passion.

"But that's not for us to decide," someone else argued; I was surprised to see it as being the usually-quiet Michael, the tough-nut of the twins. "We're given our plan and orders by the Directors and Generals and whoever else, if we change and risk the whole plan for saving a life, isn't that going against orders?"

Brandon was hasty to chime in with his brother, "Those sorts of last-minute unauthorised plan-changes, especially by people who are just foot-soldiers, those can be serious. If it doesn't work out, and maybe even if it does, as soon as you get back you could be facing Court Martial."

"Life's too precious, though!" I was amazed as Ash launched forward with her debate. "SOLDIER and Shinra are reasonable enough, if you go just a little against orders, and if it saves the life of a friend and comrade, you should be forgiven!" she argued spiritedly.

Another Cadet voiced what they thought, "I know if I were the person needing help, I'd make sure my rescuer wouldn't be punished. I'd bite the bullet before I'd let anyone else do it for me!"

"Yeah, that's all well and good, but that SOLDIER got himself into that bad situation. If he's been trained properly, he should be capable of getting himself out of there without disrupting the plan," another person spoke up, sending a somewhat-playful glare at the last person to make a comment and Ash.

"With the SOLDIER being properly trained and knowing all about the complications from plans, they should accept that they may not be able to be rescued. Shinra have enough to do without going after every stray SOLDIER, and if they can't get themselves out, they shouldn't have to rely on luck and the hope that someone else is compassionate enough to break the rules for them."

I just watched as this huge, class-wide debate continued, the room separating into two clear different groups, and I argued valiantly alongside my three friends, Jack and what was the majority of the Cadets against the other group, mostly led by the two twins - though there wasn't too great a difference between the two of us.

The class winded up with SOLDIER Winterhold yelling at the top of his voice for us to stop, a vein sticking out of his neck slightly, and us Cadets took off quite quickly. With a last glare aimed towards Will, we were all gone.

As for Zack, the only real contribution he made to the class, was the loud hiccups that accompanied our side's optimistic arguments.

...

"I'm _hungry_..."

My eyes snapped to the one who winged those last words, two other sets of eyes flicking straight to him as well, and we all shouted, "Zack, shut it!"

Upon arrival at the 'Survival Training' room, Zack had simply continued to complain about his stomach, despite the chocolate bar and the hiccups he _still had_. Will was nervously jabbering about the possibility of SOLDIER Winterhold despising him for starting the debate (though I wasn't sure how it really affected the veteran so badly). Ash had been mostly silent as usual, sticking to just elbowing Zack in the ribs when he hiccupped.

As for me, the closer I got to the 'Survival Training' room and the further from the relative safety of the 'Strategy and Tactics' room, the more difficult it was to walk; because my knees were knocking and everywhere else was shaking, tense or incredibly jumpy.

Cliff had teased me to the point he had been genuinely concerned and had started reassuring me instead, saying he wasn't actually that bad, but unfortunately he didn't realize that inconsistency, if anything, made me more nervous. Made me think he was hiding something from concern, which he was.

Would you rather be told you're going to die, and then told you're actually not, or would you rather be completely sure you were going to die? Everyone would say the former, because it's a bad example, but not me. Nope, quite clearly, I'd prefer to die, so long as I had _consistency_.

I never got the opportunity to ask if my mother had dropped me on my head as a child. I imagined she hadn't, because she was a Turk - fast reaction times, you know? But my father on the other hand, a blacksmith...yup, I can see it now.

"Coby! Man, you're shivering! You want a jumper, or something?" Ash was concerned, and a little confused, as she pressed down on my shoulder, trying to stop my jumping in place.

Will grinned at me. "Or a fire. Proper fireplace. We'll just set one up right here in the corridor. Anybody have marshmallows?" he joked with wild gestures to the floor.

I glared at the both of them with my head facing the floor. "I'm not cold. I'm petrified. There's a _big_ difference, you know," I berated sarcastically, forcing myself to stop moving altogether.

"Cliff was _joking_," Zack reassured me, a hand landing hard on the top of my helmet. "He said so. Teach won't be so bad."

Ash, from where she was staring further down the corridor, quickly swivelled to face the three of us. "Zack, do me a favour, and _don't call him that_," she muttered, pronouncing each word carefully.

My fists clenched, knowing what she'd seen and not knowing at the same time, and not wanting to know; the three of us didn't move an inch, as out of our peripheral visions, we could see someone approaching. A certain someone who had _clearly_ never cut his hair.

In no time at all, the usual din of banter amongst all the Cadets completely disappeared, with only the terrifyingly-loud sound of hard military boots rhythmically hitting the floor, steadily approaching.

From that general direction, a frighteningly familiar voice spoke out, "Hurry, Cadets. Let's get started."

I 'meeped' as quietly as I could as the General's voice boomed down the corridors, and there was nearly a pile-up in the door as we all rushed to get in as quickly as possible. I could feel the General looking directly at me and Zack and Will as we walked past him, so I kept my head as low down as it could go without looking completely ridiculous. (I didn't pull it off.)

All us Cadets were lined up near the back of the room by the time the General got in, and I think the entire room 'meeped' in a similar fashion as I did when he instantly retrieved his huge sword from where it was resting against the wall, us having not noticed it before.

He adjusted his hold on it, and in a laid-back fashion pointed it towards us; every Cadet in the room immediately leaped away from where it was pointed. The General's face was stern and emotionless, but I was certain he was enjoying the _fear_ we all had of him.

"To introduce the class, I'm going to start hunting each and every one of you. You must keep away for as long as possible. You are able to use anything in the room at your disposal, just as I will be doing."

I jolted at his announcement, instantly looking up at him, and seeing him begin to look in my direction, my eyes immediately fell to the floor once again.

"I should also inform you that I will be using Materia I have, not just my Masamune. Are we clear?"

_WHAT?!_

The four of us looked to each other, a glance that seemed like little more than a farewell, as a dark smirk overtook the General's face for only a moment. "If you are ready, we shall commence..."

...

"COBALT! You can't go to sleep, bud, I don't know if you'll wake up! YOU HEAR ME?"

Zack's voice cut through the foggy mists inviting me to unconsciousness, so I rubbed my eyes tiredly. "Geez, I'm awake, Zack. Not necessary," I complained drowsily, kicking at him with my closest foot.

After the General's _class_, or 'torture' as the rest of the world put it, we had no more classes - so all Cadets unanimously decided to retire for the day. Somehow, of the four of us, Will was easiest off - with a bash on the shin with the blunt side of Masamune, he was free to limp around the kitchen and cater for the rest of us.

The rest of us were not so lucky, to say the least, and seated in various positions on sofas in the room. Ash had suffered a surprisingly serious cut on the arm, up around her elbow - she went to the paramedics that were conveniently stationed one door down, then eventually to the infirmary, and it did bleed quite a lot; but no stitches, just bandages.

Zack - poor, old Zack - his right leg was completely scorched from the knee down. His injuries would've been a lot worse though; he could've had a pretty nasty _hole_ in his side had he not pulled a _Matrix_ move when he did, and ducked down beneath a side swipe of the General's blade.

And despite his epic manoeuvre, one of his belts were cut; one pulled tight enough to spring back and thwack him on the nose.

As for myself, I believed that the General had taken it upon himself to take revenge for Angeal's door. Zack was making sure I didn't fall asleep because I had taken a _very_ hard bash to the head with Masamune's hilt, and was now suffering a concussion.

I'd even thrown up a few times, a few seconds after the hit (I don't really remember much of it right then), before we left, and when I got back to the apartment. I wasn't sure if that actually was a symptom of a concussion, but I could only presume that only happened when it was bad. AKA, one little Cadet receiving a bash on the head from a First Class SOLDIER.

I got to sit out after that, though I had a feeling it was only because I _was_ sick...and seeing double, and I couldn't really stand properly. The stupid man had gone and given me brain damage, no doubt.

I figured lots of nice, comfortable, safe rest was just what was needed to get me back on my feet to start getting me over this _serious medical condition_.

I do love my situation right now, I really do.

Will was nice enough to rustle us up some pizza, from a nice takeout in Sector Eight, and Will, Ash and Zack chatted away to each other while I dozed on the sofa. Eventually Zack deemed it late enough that I had fully recovered from my concussion, and he headed off to bed, leaning quite heavily on anything around the room secure enough to support his weight on the way.

Will and Ash soon followed, Ash asking if I needed any help getting anywhere - which I refused, in preference to staying on the sofa for a while longer. Only Zack had seen my curious sleeping arrangements so far, thanks to a late-night chocolate craving, and the longer I kept it that way the better.

It may not have been ideal, after suffering a fairly serious concussion, but hey. I was a girl, disguised as a boy, in SOLDIER. There was only one thing I could do, and that was to persevere.

* * *

Being back in the old Cadets' room had caused Genesis and Angeal to come over all nostalgic. It had been a very long time since they were Cadets themselves, and nothing about the rooms had changed...except for the numerous bags of popcorn on the counter, and the teal-hilted blade inside the blue scabbard propped against the wall.

Angeal took the moment to glance around the room, a wistful smile on his face. "I still remember the day we got accepted into SOLDIER...that was some day, huh, Genesis?" he thought aloud, and a glance to his companion as he grunted in acknowledgement with a faintly irate expression told him all he needed to know.

That was the day they officially met Sephiroth, already a First Class SOLDIER at the time, and therefore Genesis had less-than fond memories of it. Sephiroth had been as civil as they'd expected - quiet, but decent enough to them - but of course, Genesis had immediately ostracised him, what with being a well-known, slightly younger, higher-up SOLDIER in Shinra.

Considering how Sephiroth had acted around them, it was a wonder he didn't simply avoid them from then on, after Genesis was noticeably hateful towards him, but for whatever reason, he vaguely enjoyed eliciting these reactions from the redhead, and it wasn't long before the two got used to each other. There were still moments of competition, as Genesis was still not content despite being First Class, but the three had made fast friends.

Genesis stared at his childhood friend, folding his arms stiffly. "We didn't come here to reminisce, Angeal," he berated, snapping Angeal out of his thoughts. "We came to wake up these kiddies for their first proper lessons."

Angeal gave a small sigh, and despite being bothered only slightly by what he had said, he told Genesis off, saying, "They aren't _kiddies_, Genesis, they've proved themselves to be good Cadets. And Sephiroth took them for their first 'Survival Training' yesterday; how do you think they're feeling after that?"

"...It makes no difference," Genesis replied, "if they're not tough enough for training this morning, even after that class, then they aren't cut out to be in SOLDIER."

Genesis unfolded his arms and started towards the door to a bedroom, not knocking despite knowing they had at least one other roommate somewhere in the apartment. Angeal knew Genesis was being unnecessarily tough on the Cadets, but there was little he could do about it. Genesis was always a competitive person, and so he'd automatically strive for training Cobalt fast and hard, have him learn everything in the quickest and most efficient way possible.

Angeal would take longer; like Genesis he knew the limitations of Cadets and lower ranks in SOLDIER, but unlike Genesis, Angeal took them into consideration. Zack would advance through the ranks when he was fully capable. And Angeal fully believed that Cobalt had a sturdy head on his shoulders, and would be able to put up with Genesis' headstrong teaching methods.

Angeal walked to the other bedroom door, opened it, announced that he was there, and flicked on the light.

Sure enough, there was Zack in the right corner of the room, slowly rolling over in his bed and rubbing his eyes in a way that made Angeal want to yawn - it was early for him too, despite that he was used to the early mornings by now. "Geez, Cobalt, classes can't be for another five minutes, at least..." the Cadet complained drowsily, taking his sweet time in opening his eyes and looking at the clock on the bedside table, before eventually looking to the doorway. "...'ngeal?" he questioned after a second, and let himself fall back on the pillow.

Genesis strode into the room. "Is Cobalt in here? He wasn't in the other room," he said, glancing around the room; both his and Angeal's eyes came to rest on the bed in the left corner of the room, neatly made and looking like it hadn't been slept in at all. "Where _is_ he?" he demanded to know a second later, looking to Zack, who had stumbled out of bed, looking vaguely dazed at the four new people standing in the room; Genesis had been joined moments later by a disgruntled and sleepy looking Ash and Will, the latter holding onto a pillow.

Ignoring Will's high-pitched moan of 'Why are you heeeeeerrrreeee?', Ash furrowed her brow, looking concerned. "What, Coby isn't here? He didn't fall asleep on the sofa, after that concussion, did he?" she interrogated Zack, somewhat troubled.

Zack slowly walked out of the room, four perplexed members of Shinra following the spiky-haired Cadet, wearing an off-white t-shirt and black shorts. "If he isn't still on the sofa, I expect he's in his usual place," he speculated, coming into the living area, where the room appeared to be free of the missing blue-haired Cadet.

"First day of training, and the kiddie hasn't even got to the training room before he's run off. I think I've reached a new record, Angeal," Genesis commented in a laid-back manner.

Angeal glanced at him in disbelief for a moment, before shaking it off and turning to look at Zack, who was yawning and stretching in an exaggerated fashion. "His usual place? He's not in his bed, where else is he?" the First Class enquired, an eyebrow raised.

Genesis smirked slightly, "More importantly, concussion? Sephiroth wasn't holding back on you kiddies then, was he?" he mocked, looking at Will and Ash, both looking somewhat sheepish, Ash unconsciously reaching up to rub at the wound she had gained yesterday. He also glanced over at Zack, who was paying little attention as he moved to the other side of the room.

"Coby, get up...Angeal and Genesis are here for training..." With no response from the room, other than the four others in the room staring in confusion at the sleepy Cadet, he ambled towards the television, and checked behind it.

"What _are_ you doing?" Ash was quick to ask, as Zack walked back over to the group.

"Coby's not here. He's always up really early, he probably went for some breakfast already. Or a walk, I don't know, but can I sleep 'til he gets here?" Zack explained, and without waiting for a response, he collapsed down onto a sofa behind him.

Nothing was said for a few moments, until Angeal finally asked the question on all their minds, "Why did you check behind the television?"

Zack rubbed an eye, scratched his head, and yawned. "He sleeps there. It's pretty funny, I came out for a midnight snack and there he was, sleeping behind the TV, on his head. I just saw his feet above the TV, I thought I was dreaming...we had some chocolate, I went back to bed, and I figure he went back to sleep too, though I didn't see him until he came out of the shower that morning."

The dark-haired Cadet rose to his feet, mumbling something about getting changed for training, ignoring the four in the middle of the room, stood still, each with their own expressions of incredulity. The two other Cadets knew that Cobalt didn't sleep in a bed, as he had told them the day he met them...but on his _head_, behind the_ television_...

The door handle rattled, and the four turned swiftly to look, as the Cadet strode into the room, blue hair spiking out from his helmet haphazardly, he taking a bite from a piece of buttered toast.

He looked up in surprise at the four staring at him, and chewed slower, gradually closing the door behind him. Eventually, he swallowed thickly, and he asked, "We have company? I should've brought more toast...sorry."

Genesis was first to snap into action, and intentionally strode to the door, grabbing the sword against the wall and the top of the Cadet's helmet as he went and pulled him along behind with a strong, First Class grip on the rim of the helmet, firmly attached to the boy's head. "What do you use - glue?" he asked in incredulity a moment later, readjusting his grip on the helmet.

Cobalt smirked as he responded, "Well, it _does_ need to be secure."


	6. My First Mission

Mind = blown. Late updates = more reviews? There's a light bulb over Pikachu's little cap now!

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

...Heh heh, just kidding. Late updates will never be deliberate, despite the apparent extra reviews I may get for accidental delays. Sorry everyone!

But, I have a very legitimate excuse; begins with an 's', ends in a 'chool', and it's the reason I believe many other people like me use to excuse them from making everyone worry a little.

And there are two little mini reasons as well: for one, I've had two exams. _Proper_ ones, I'm afraid to say, that I will be repeating, no doubt. And the other reason is that I do Music, and we watch musicals, and I became overcome with an embarrassing obsession of Gerard Butler.

Yes, I know, _'the Phantom of the Opera IS there, inside my mind_'. Ugh. Believe me when I say, I never wanted that to happen.

Also, the day after watching the 2010 20th anniversary of _Les Misérables_, I saw it in the cinema...aw, geez, I've seen many a great movie that made me want to cry, but this is the first one that actually _did_. My cap goes off to you, Sir Jackman! The first actor to successfully make me shed tears!

(I never expected _Wolverine_ to make me cry, but there you go. The sign of a brilliant actor, I suppose!)

...Bravo to all you patient people, waiting for my lazy behind to get in gear and update while I was off watching movies with Hugh Jackman...but you will be rewarded! Here is your next chapter! :D

Heh heh heh...Chapter 7 will have the most amazing scene in it, I just had to draw it. Isn't it crazy, it's been drawn and completed since before I uploaded Chapter 2? Apologies, though, you won't see it for a good long while, as the picture is in two parts, and the other part I haven't even planned properly yet. Ah well, bask in the knowledge that something funny is on the horizon!

Oh yes, and THANK YOU EVERYONE for the reviews! My replies are at the bottom. ;)

* * *

6 - My First Mission

"Background check, kiddie."

I shook my head, trying to get rid of the weird, dizzy feeling that came from being dragged by a helmet for - I'm not even kidding - _minutes_, and allowed the question to sink in, as the red-haired First Class Commander Rhapsodos, and my new tutor, stared at me in a manner I could only call _stern_, his arms in his red leather jacket folded in front of him. He had returned my sword to me in the lift, and it was now resting in position on my back.

I blinked up at him, and ignored the instinctive reaction to start fiddling with my fingers. I hated to admit, I was slightly intimidated by the Commander, and I refused to show the weakness to him.

He was already calling me 'kiddie'. I didn't need to reinforce that, I needed to rebuke it!

"Angeal tells me that he heard from your teacher you were taught for five years, by your parents?" he questioned, his brow furrowed.

My gaze never wavered from the Commander's face, as I nodded. "Yes, sir."

Immediately he straightened up from where he had bent over me slightly, turning his back to me. "_My soul, corrupted by vengeance, Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey, In my own salvation; And your eternal slumber_..." he recited, pronouncing each word delicately, as though they deserved the utmost respect.

I stared at him, one eye twitching, for moments until he swivelled to look at me, and with a lack of anything more intelligent to do, I put on an inspired and distant face and stared vaguely in the same direction he had been looking. He clicked his fingers, and I glanced to him cautiously, noticing him steaming just slightly with annoyance. "Sorry, sir?" I asked, noticeably softer, and cursing myself for it.

He tilted his head up slightly as he answered, "This is going to be a terrible student/tutor relationship if you insist on keeping _those_ up. Do that all you like in public, but when it is just you and myself, I am Genesis."

I found myself wondering if he realised how odd it sounded calling this a _relationship_, but I didn't want to cause trouble, so I simply smirked, nodded, and agreed, "Alright, sure."

A few moments passed, and it became awkward as he simply stared at me, and finally requested, "Would you like to give it a try, or will we start with the _proper_ training right now?"

"I...think I'm fine," I laughed it off, trying to restrain my grin, and he nodded, before stepping back a few paces, and holding out his arms. I noticed, in slight confusion, he didn't have his own rapier with him, despite bringing mine.

"Come at me. Try to land a hit," he commanded, and I blinked in surprise, straightening up. I noticed the slightest spark of determination and eagerness in his eyes as he watched me carefully, though it was gone in an instant.

I wanted to leave a good impression on this man. I wanted to seem like I knew what I was doing, to seem bundles more determined and experienced than I actually was, to try and impress him. So, instead of recoiling and asking _why he'd let me charge him with my own sword_, I crouched down ever-so-slightly, drew my rapier, setting the sheath down against the wall, and as he asked, I ran at him.

Something in his face changed - I couldn't decide whether it was good or bad - and as I prepared myself to slice and adjusted my hold on my sword, and swiped it straight towards him from my left, something happened...

And as was quickly becoming the norm, I ended up sprawled on the floor. My rapier was pointed out away from me, but the hilt was inches out of my reach, and my wrist had a black boot pressed down on it.

I found myself wondering, _this is his background check?_

He moved his foot off my wrist, but made no move to help me up any further. "Haven't you fully recovered from that concussion Sephiroth gave you? Or do I have to work with a person with no balance whatsoever?" he mocked, and I glanced up at him to see him with arms folded yet again, smirking down at me.

My eyes narrowed. "Bit 'a both. But cut me some slack, I was sick three times!" I moaned, grabbing my rapier and rising to my feet.

He said something else in the language of poetry, more nonsense that I didn't understand, so while he narrated it, I swung my sword around for his left side.

I saw it happening this time. His gloved hand shot out immediately after I put the effort into the blow, moved around the blade and grabbed it just where the hilt met the blade, and pulled it forwards with such force I was sent sprawling again, only this time he held onto my sword.

"At least you know how to exploit an opportunity to your advantage, but it won't be a great amount of use if you continue to fall over as you do," he awarded me the back-handed compliment, and I felt some pressure on my back as I made to get up. Unsure if it was his boot yet again or the tip of my rapier ready to skewer my spine, I remained still. "Time to find out if you actually have any potential," he said briskly, the pressure being removed, "I'll set up a mission for you. Go into the Virtual Training room."

By the time I had stumbled to my feet, the Co - Genesis had his back to me yet again, and was examining some dials and buttons on a machine. My sword was resting against the wall near me, next to the sheath, so I strapped on the scabbard to my back, sheathed my rapier and walked into the metallic room, cringing at the echoing sound of my Cadet boots in the silence of the cold room.

Genesis' voice came from where I had just come over a loudspeaker, "Put on the headset. I'll start the program, tell you what you're doing, and stop the program when the mission gets too much for you."

I furrowed my brow and rolled my eyes at the word _when _- of _course_ he'd have to switch it off because _I'd_ be terrible - but silently pulled on the high-tech goggles, having retrieved them from a small closet-like room embedded into the wall of the training room, and positioned myself in the at-ease position in the centre of the room.

A position that instantly collapsed in on itself when everything around me gradually turned to nothing, pixel by pixel, and my mouth dropped beneath the helmet and the goggles that were weighing my face down far too much. Instinctively, my hand rose to reach out, wanting to touch the weird changes that were taking place, despite that the logical part of my brain knew it wasn't physically there.

Everything around me livened back up again, once more by pixels, but it was surprisingly quick - and before I knew it, I found myself in the centre of a somewhat large village, everything dark and dilapidated and desolate and dead, silent as night. The slightest wind blew, and I refrained from pushing the irritating tickling strands of hair up into my helmet, simply brushing them off so they were momentarily out of my way.

I realised in that second, this wasn't _real_...and the detail these Shinra developers were able to put in was astounding. No joke.

"If you're done admiring the scenery," Genesis' voice, coupled with the slightest trace of feedback, could be heard from my headset, "then I'll get started with briefing you on your mission."

"Go right ahead!" I enthused, delicately leaving out his name, as I still felt it was far too uncomfortable just yet.

"This town was victim to a Mako Reactor meltdown many years ago, destroying all the life previously here..." he began, and it took all of my willpower to hold back my physical reaction. Everything seemed too real all of a sudden - the only sound being the whistling of the slowly accelerating wind, the strong bitter scent of Mako catching in my throat, everything having simply fallen into disrepair. A small piece of debris rattled and clanked as it followed the wind, rolling along the uneven ground. "...Did you get all that?"

"Gotcha. Try to find out about a big evil nastie living here. I hear you."

I straightened up, ignoring a sudden dull ache that pressed on my stomach as Genesis responded into my ear, "Alright, then I leave it up to you. Impress me, Amell," and he was gone, the small buzz of life and technology in my ear cutting out, leaving me with the deafening silence of what could well have been my hometown.

I started forward at a somewhat hasty pace, grimacing as my feet occasionally got bogged down in ash and dust and rotting pieces of bits and bobs. I blocked out my surroundings, and tried to focus on what I was supposed to be doing. I closed my eyes.

Somebody told Shinra that there was a lone, destructive creature that was upsetting the ecosystem of this area, and that they saw tracks leading to here, where they thought it might live. I was here to investigate after some kind of large mammalian creature, and either eradicate it and any possible young, or preferably capture or knock it unconscious, long enough for a helicopter to retrieve us.

Genesis had told me all this, as well as that it was believed to have a secreted a small blue pus that was found nearby - which either meant it was either ill, which was disgusting, or it was slimy and gross _all_ the time, which was worse.

If it lived in a place like this, I wouldn't be surprised if it was mentally disturbed as well. I was beginning to hate Genesis even more now, given that so far he was shaping up to be a pretty horrible person.

Not a _pretty_, _horrible_ person, a _pretty_ _horrible_ person. 'Pretty' is an adjective to describe 'horrible', not 'Genesis'. I'm not describing Genesis as...well, you get the idea.

This mission, at least, wasn't too elaborate. There'd be none of that Turk stuff like trying to get information out of people. We had the information, and there would be no one else around. It was just a matter of seeking and destroying, and that was it.

With this reassurance in my head, I started to peer into houses, ransacked, destroyed, eroding, but there was no sign of any vile creature; no recent footprints, everything covered in the thick layer of dust and grime, nothing moved or changed at all. Nothing out of the ordinary.

With every unsuccessful carefully examined house, I became more antsy and anxious. For some wild creature to be living somewhere around here, things were too clean, too crisp, too neat and careful. False Intel could be the reason - though impossible, not only because it was a simulation, but other villagers had nothing to gain from lying - so there were only a few reasonable explanations.

It was possible that the thing simply hadn't touched anything in the houses and moved on from here, though the Intel said it was likely the thing had been here for a long time. Unfortunately, there was another scenario that seemed most plausible; this thing was smarter than I initially thought, considering I had not caught any signs of its existence so far.

There was only one thing I could think. _This shouldn't be allowed, I shouldn't be a Cadet doing this mission on my own! Second Class SOLDIERs could need help on this!_

I was just growing this picture in my head, of a colossal giant worm thing, secreting giant lumps of blue pus, writhing and wailing and biting with teeth as tough as ivory, finding prey underground by listening to vibrations-

I froze, my feet unwilling to move any farther, thanks to my farfetched imagination. Many fast, loud palpitations of my heart later, Genesis' voice spoke into my ear in a sarcastic bite, "I want an explanation for you freezing up like this, kiddie, and I don't want to hear you say, 'I fell asleep'."

"I don't have narcolepsy," I whispered back into the headset, "I'm just wondering what this monster is like, and if it's anything underground, like a worm or something, I don't want to be sending vibr-"

Genesis was hasty in cutting me off, with an impatient and exasperated sigh, and informed me, "Amell, I hope you don't over think _everything_. It is not underground, it is a cat-like beast in the forest to the west, which relies mostly on smell."

"...Wow, way to spoil it all," I answered with my own sarcastic jab, worries mostly forgotten as I spun on my heels and started to the west.

"This mission was never supposed to be a thinking exercise, nor a paranoid fright-fest," I could hear Genesis' eye roll in his voice as he jabbed at me in a jaded voice. "It would have been nice to see you use some initiative to find out where the thing would be, but since I was hoping to have a full night of sleep tonight, I could not leave you to your own devices, kiddie." I hoped the feline monster would have a face similar to Genesis', or at least have crimson fur, because I could just picture myself tearing the First Class Commander to shreds right now.

I elected not to respond, and with a fizzle and a click as my farewell from the other end, Genesis broke off the connection between us. And left alone to the silence of my own thoughts, I started to think about some things I probably shouldn't have been thinking about.

_I wish I had a decent tutor, I'd love to know how this virtual room thing works! Aren't I in danger of bashing my nose off a wall at any time soon?_ I would have asked Genesis these things, but I was convinced he'd just brush it off, or respond with a sarcastic comment I wouldn't know how to respond to.

So naturally, I went ahead and asked him, "How do I know if I've reached the wall of the Virtual Training room?"

A laboured sigh attacked my eardrums, giving way too much feedback into my ears and making them hurt, having previously been used to the silence. "Do you really think Shinra would design a Virtual Training room without sorting out these obvious kinks? From now on, Amell, think before asking stupid questions."

Instantly after, I was met with complete silence again, and in a bit of a huff, I reassured myself, _He was just like that because he doesn't know himself._

I continued in a western direction, watching the quick transition from a destroyed town to a bit of a wasteland - there were trees everywhere, but not growing; all black, with no leaves, branches snapping off at the slightest pressure and littering the ground.

It was quite sad, but once again, the landscape changed quite quickly. More and more trees could be seen, then ones slightly healthier-looking, and before I knew it, I had reached the end of the ruined ecosystem, and was looking quite contentedly at a literal forest of brown and green trees in front of me, the leaves on the ground crunching beautifully under my boots.

I couldn't help grinning for a little while as I walked, but with every step the elation I had reached plummeted, and anxiety stirring discomfort in my stomach grew. There was no sound of wildlife, and as I adventured, I failed to keep my eyes from drifting to trees with chunks missing out of their trunks, in a very distinct two-claw gouge.

My head swivelled, in such a way I gave myself whiplash. A howl. One that sounded _way_ too close, though I was caught between calling it a howl and a _roar_.

And then I remembered what Genesis had said, '...relies mostly on smell'. This was its territory, no duh, and I had just come in, smelling of strawberries and cream shampoo and a considerable amount of boy's deodorant to try cover up that particular blunder.

(I didn't really get what girls complain about. The deodorant didn't smell too bad! Obviously, as myself, I wouldn't have it, but...)

There was another, shorter call from the evil beastie, and I heard a very light, far away thudding of quickly - running paws on a forest floor. Not knowing a whole pile about the outdoors, as I was a bit of a city girl, despite my relatively backwater town upbringing, I didn't really know what to do.

Naturally then, I made a very embarrassing snap decision, due to my desire to get the jump on this nasty feline.

I could hear my last scraps of pride at the back of my head, telling me not to do it, and I heard them disappear as I dived straight into a mud/leaf combination of _crap_ on the floor, spreading it all over myself and rubbing it into my clothes, and leaping up to climb a tree.

I thought the most difficult part of my plan would've been to let go of that pride and rub dirt into every nook and cranny of me, but I didn't anticipate the difficulty of climbing that tree.

I grabbed onto a branch, and tried to climb up like a rock wall, and landed hard on the ground on my tushie.

I got my foot onto a high branch, and pushed myself up with that foot, only to spring myself into skidding away from the tree on my back.

I got a running start, and leaped a few feet from the tree and grabbed onto a branch - that instantly snapped and had me plunging into the puddle of mud and leaves yet again.

I only got to try those three ways, because when I struggled to my feet to make a fourth attempt, I came face-to-face with a salivating, growling, horrendously ugly cat twice my size with canines the length of my finger.

"...Yuck. Eww..."

I wiped off some saliva on my nose with my right hand, and was instantly pounced on by the oversized kitty cat. With it - _him _- bearing down on my right arm, and about to bite into me, I swiftly dealt an uppercut, kicked him just below his ribs, and rolled out from beneath him.

He staggered just slightly, blood oozing from his mouth as his thumb-sized incisors had stabbed his bottom lip, and I asked Genesis in my ear, "What, do I tell you now that I'm ready for pick-up?" It was only moments after my question, my overly-paranoid self reconsidered the phrase 'I'm ready for pick-up'.

"Only when the beast is detained and ready for transport," Genesis responded, and immediately I cringed in discomfort. A laugh from his end informed me that he knew exactly what he'd done by saying that, and the sound cut out, just as the cat jumped me again.

I managed to stay on my feet this time, but could only stay like that by leaping backwards. The thing snarled at me angrily and impatiently, his head low, and began to slowly circle me. Not wanting to alarm it with sudden movements, my hand trailed slowly up my body, until I was able to reach for my rapier's hilt over my shoulder.

It growled and tensed powerful hindquarters, before launching himself forward. In a quick move, I brandished my sword in front of me, and made to skewer the beast. It must've seen the reflection of the light or something, because it was spooked unfortunately easily, and twisted to the right, avoiding me, but also my sword.

I pushed it forward, and only nicked the side of the beast, causing the smallest dribble of blue down its dark-coloured fur. Its eyes riveted to mine, and we both stood there like deer, its red irises surrounded by yellow meeting my adrenaline-fuelled wide blue ones.

Frozen as it was, I took this as an advantage to me, and thrust forward with my rapier, swinging it down in a wide arc with intentions to simply maim it, not kill it. After all, I needed to prove to Genesis that I was capable of finishing a mission to the 't' - it would still be a success if I were to kill the blue-blooded beast, but I wanted to go above _just a pass_.

Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Instead of staying down, paralyzed as it was, if anything I'd have expected it to jump at me, or out of the way.

None of these things happened - the demented kitty cat roared and leapt straight for my sword, swinging down on it.

Startled, I gritted my teeth and shut my eyes, expecting to be showered with thick, warm blue liquid; so it was strange when my two-armed swing stopped short, with a huge ringing sound of the blade hitting something just as hard. The recoil from the block quaked my arms, and I accidentally dropped the sword.

A resonating growl came from in front of me, and nearly afraid to look, I peeked through one half-open eyelid.

The black beast was stood in front of me, its wide eyes furious, the slightest bit of saliva dribbling out of the side of its mouth, where it gripped my rapier's blade with huge, white teeth. I stared at the bulky cat in astonished silence, my mouth on the floor. "_How_-" My voice was too high-pitched for being Cobalt, so I restarted the sentence, "How did you do _that_?!"

"He was programmed that way," a smug, familiar voice responded to me from behind, and without any time to think, I dived to the floor as the cat leapt.

I twisted my head to look behind me at the huge beasts behind - around it I could see my sword was dropped to the ground, and the thing faded, as did the environment around me, until all I saw was the red-coated Commander.

My teacher swept down to lift my rapier by the hilt, and held it up, to show me the state of the blade - every piece of dirt, drool and dribble was simply gone, as was all the mud and leaves previously welded to me. Genesis looked at me over the top of my rapier, and offered a smirk, clearly demonstrating to me his amusement.

Without any assistance, I got to my feet myself, and brushed my clothes off, despite their spick-and-span state. "That's all very well and good, but I was _talking_ to the virtual cat," I replied deadpan, holding out one hand for him to return the rapier.

He 'hmm'ed thoughtfully, and admired the blade for a moment, before stepping forward to walk around me. I followed him, until he barked, "Eyes front!" and my gaze returned to the Virtual Training room wall.

I tried to see him in my peripheral, but I was practically going blind, and I couldn't see him anyway, so I simply faced forward without any other option. A moment later, Genesis reached forward with his right hand, and removed my scabbard from my back. "Wha - hey! What are you-"

"Cadet Amell, that display was atrocious, how you handled this sword. Until I feel safe that you will be capable of using such a well-crafted weapon without harming me, I'm confiscating it. Now, start squats!"

"Aww, but that's my rapier!" I complained, staring at him in Zack's iconic puppy-dog gaze. Not like it ever worked, but hey, I could try...

"It's either your rapier or your arms, because I'm pretty sure if you have both for long then one of the two will be gone. Squats!"

Puppy-dog eyes never worked. But as I started the workout demanded of me, feeling somewhat strained already from the high-octane mission, I couldn't help feeling a small glow of camaraderie between myself and my tutor - _finally_, he seemed to have mostly dropped the 'kiddie' nickname.

"...How long do I do this for?"

"SQUATS!"

"Ugh..."

* * *

After a boring, sleep-inducing five hours spent training the blue-headed Cadet, with little visible improvement, Genesis decided he'd had enough. Accidentally on purpose, without telling the Cadet, he departed to find Angeal and ask how his training with the other kiddie went. The red-haired SOLDIER Commander 'accidentally', discreetly, left an Angeal-borrowed tape recording of Genesis giving orders, with what he was hoping was at least an hour of undamaged tape.

"Keep going! If this floor isn't covered in sweat by the time you're done, then I want five-hundred squats, you hear me? But for now, do some laps, Cadet!" was the symphony Genesis slowly skulked towards the door to.

"Aww, but-"

"NOW!"

Genesis made it out through the door on that last yell, made a note to compliment Angeal on the brilliance of his idea, and the believable script, as he brushed his hands off, after accomplishing the mundane task of training the Cadet, and started towards Angeal's office.

With no one in there, and a similar result from Sephiroth's office (he reluctantly admitted that the three did seem to meet a considerable amount there, less in Angeal's office, and never in his own) he strode to the First Class living area; and sure enough, there was Sephiroth in an armchair, calmly eating from a small bowl of noodles with a pair of expertly-handled chopsticks, and Angeal spread out on a two-seater couch, a Styrofoam cup of steaming tea in hand.

The two looked up at his arrival, Sephiroth offering a nod and Angeal raising his cup in Genesis' direction with a smile. "Has it taken you this long to exhaust, kill and bury the poor Cadet, Genesis?" he joked. Genesis, pouring himself a mug of hot cocoa, sent an amused grin over his shoulder at his childhood friend and fellow SOLDIER Commander.

"Am I to expect that Zack is still doing squats, or simply dead himself?" Genesis questioned, taking his mug over to ease into an armchair opposite Sephiroth and on the other side of Angeal, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at the dark-haired First Class.

Angeal blinked, and huffed a small laugh. "Of course not, we called it quits hours ago. You know they have the Turks' class in three-quarters of an hour; I didn't want Zack getting a bad reputation by showing up with no energy," he replied, taking a sip of his tea.

The silent General and Angeal alike both stared at Genesis' slight jerk, in vaguely amused interest. After a moment, the red-clothed SOLDIER raised his mug to his lips, and took a long taste of the sweet beverage, sinking into his seat. "If Amell shows up late for his class, that's his prerogative. Right now, he should value my tutelage over class with the Turks."

Sephiroth smirked lightly around a mouthful of noodles. Angeal raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"...No matter whether I'm there or not."

Angeal snorted, "You kept him for _this_ long-" he paused his tirade to check his wrist watch, "five _hours_! And you _still_ used the tape recorder?! Genesis, Blue's goofy, but he's decent enough - you don't actually want to kill him, do you?"

Genesis uncaringly flicked an imaginary piece of dust from his coat, "Of course not. He's improving, no matter how gradual that incline. And this endurance will only do him good." Genesis seemed to be simply throwing out arguments as he came up with them.

His dark-haired companion sighed in exasperation and shook his head. "If that boy's still breathing by the end of this workout, you had better give him a day or two off, Genesis. No matter how awake he was this morning, five hours in training with _you_ is enough to wear him, or _anyone_ down to the brink of insanity," he demanded, and Genesis rolled his eyes in a nearly childish manner, before shrugging off Angeal's advice.

"The kiddie'll be fine. At the very least, he won't still have that concussion Sephiroth gave him," Genesis mocked, sending a smirk in the silver-haired General's direction - only to raise an eyebrow as the man rose to his feet. "Sephiroth?" he questioned, even as he placed his bowl and chopsticks on the counter, before turning back to his two comrades.

"I was unnecessarily rough with Amell yesterday, and the concussion was a result of my disregard of the Cadet's fortitude. I thought I should help him now, as compensation." Sephiroth smirked in slight amusement at the two other First Class' expressions of surprise. "I suppose whether I like it or not, these few Cadets are a part of our lives now, after all," he explained, and without another word, took long strides out of the room and towards the lifts to floor forty-nine, intent on this sudden impulse to do something good for the Cadet.

Genesis and Angeal shared glances, Angeal's shell-shocked, Genesis' delighted and amused. After all, Sephiroth was so rarely _human_. For him to show this sudden awareness of compassion and empathy was unheard of.

Sephiroth wasn't a bad person, of course he wasn't. He was well-known for being strict, with great attention to detail, and only spending any of his time on anything or anyone he judged as worthy of it. He wasn't terribly mean, but never did he show actual consideration, much less for a _Cadet_ being worked _harder_ than the norm.

For Sephiroth, of all people, to intervene in, of all situations _this_ one, showed that there must've been something _extremely_ odd going on. Hence, the joy in Genesis' eyes, as he joked, "Amell and Sephy, sittin' in a tree-"

"_Genesis_!" Angeal cut him off, though the shout was strained as the dark-haired SOLDIER Commander covered his mouth with a thick SOLDIER glove, laughs escaping through the fabric.

"What? That was strange, you have to admit!" Genesis pressed, gesturing in the direction Sephiroth had departed. Angeal could do little but nod in agreement. Genesis took a moment to double-take, and stare at Angeal's hands, where he held his cup of tea. "I thought you hated tea, Angeal."

"It was. But you'll be next," he warned in response to his friend's first statement while completely ignoring the second, folding his thick arms over his chest.

The red-haired SOLDIER sent him a look of unimpressed disbelief. "Yes, and how do you figure that?" he enquired mockingly.

One of Angeal's eyebrows quirked as he explained, "Well, I'll admit, I was first, thanks to his twin. Now Sephiroth, thanks to you, is making friends with Blue. And before too long, you two will be talking, or will be together in some sort of situation, and there will just be a moment, a look, something said, and then Sephiroth and I will have to start singing about _you_.

"...Oh, and I drink tea. I like tea. Its coffee I can't stand."

Genesis was put out by this vivid description (obviously he cared little for Angeal's admission of his preferred beverage) and so a moment later, he swept easily to his feet, gesturing Angeal to follow. "Come, Angeal. I don't really want to miss this bonding moment between Amell and Sephiroth," he spoke with a strange fusion of enthusiasm, sarcasm and confusion, that Angeal could do little else but laugh, following behind the floating red tails of his childhood friend's favourite leather coat.

"Your student did not know what he was getting into, did he?"

* * *

_Any_way, to say the least, I was totally astonished and amazed when, one morning, I checked my e-mails and saw, what, _three_ absolutely EPIC new reviews?! From the bottom of my heart, this mid-teen writer humbly thanks you, and you can be sure that I spent the rest of that morning grinning like the Cheshire cat, and complaining about my cheeks the rest of the day.

Noxy the Proxy: Haha, you wouldn't believe how much I enjoyed writing the last bit! Thank you for that!

AnonyMouse: Ah, wow, thank you! Seriously, my grin right now is about the width of the _earth_...can you see it? :D

SO glad I could make you laugh, you wouldn't believe! And this is the first time I've been described as 'fantasmic', I think, or indeed having mighty skills as a writer! Also, allow me to mention...loved the name. ;)

WhiteWerefox: It doesn't seem like her plan _should_ work, does it? Then again, this is fiction, and _my_ version of fiction, so anything could happen. And can I just say, thank you for the prediction; it's given me a great idea for a little dilemma I've been having-I hope you realise that _you_ inspired the event, when it crops up, and I will be sure to thank you when it happens, so stick with me 'til then! And, uh, yeah, we all approve of blue hair, don't we? ;)

...Ahhh, you have no idea how much of a load you've lifted off my mind by saying that. Considering (if you didn't already know) all my knowledge of FFVII is based on various YouTube videos, Wiki-reading and FanFiction, I'm relieved that someone believes that they're in character. Also that you approve of the change of POV, I couldn't be more delighted that you consider it a good idea!

Hehe, the name? I may be a (bad) Chemistry student, but to be perfectly honest, despite all the thought I've put into the story already, the element didn't even occur to me. I've just always thought that cobalt was something that was blue, like sapphire. 'Cobalt blue', you know? It was a bit of a thick moment for me, and I only recently discovered (after some _actual_ research) that the actual colour of cobalt the element was silver/grey. Cobalt blue actually comes from a combination of cobalt, aluminium and oxygen. But I have to be honest, this facepalm moment is one I was glad for; the shade of sapphire and of cobalt blue, according to Wikipedia, were as much the same shade as I could ever have hoped for. So, it wasn't too bad a screw up!

...Don't worry, that's about as technical as you can ever expect me to get. ;)

Itajade: D'awwh, thank you so much! Ah, I just live for people like you! Hope you continue to enjoy the story!

gDeIpVhIrNoEtt: Don't worry, there isn't any way I'm stopping the story now. I'm glad you like her character, and the plot! (I wasn't sure if there was going to be _enough_ plot when I started to get people interested, to be honest.) I'm also delighted that I managed to explain everything so that it made sense and it seemed real. And, uh, peace to you too! :D

I replied to you last, because you brought up a very good point; I accidentally neglected to tell you people of the POV change! (Duh! *facepalm*) I decided to start that as I once read a story that diverted to the second-to-main character's point of view at the end of each chapter for a little while, and I thought it was a very good idea. I'm terribly sorry that I confused you with that!

Basically, the main chapter is written in first person, from Sapphire/Cobalt's point of view, which is the proper, important bit. I insert a page break at the end of her POV, and change to third person from the POV of either a different person or group. Originally I intended it to change to different people per chapter, but it sort of just worked that I would change at that point to the three First Classes; Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis, in a group or individually. It's basically just an added extra, a different point of view, for all my lovely readers! ;)

Thank you for telling me your question, and I hope that's cleared things up for you. Hope you continue to enjoy the story!


	7. Turkey with Your Tea?

Hee hee...Chapter 6 was uploaded the day before my pet dog's birthday...guess who's a whole year older on Saturday!

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

...You got it! It's ME! Yippee! (I haven't yet gotten to the stage where a year older is a bad thing, if you were wondering.)

I really am sorry that updates seem to be so far apart. If I could spend all day at home every day - which I could, but I won't - then I would spend it writing Sapphire's next big adventure! Unfortunately, I value my education at a higher priority than...that's wrong, I don't, but I have a habit of doing the worst thing first. Business before pleasure. Homework before writing. Dinner before dessert.

Mmm...cookies...my mum makes the best dessert-type cookies I've ever had in all my life...and the stuff it's made from comes ready made in a packet! I'm drooling now, even while I think about it. Ugh, _man_, I want cookies...

Plus, I've been playing this hilariously fun hack of Pokémon Fire Red... and I've been completing a latch-hook mat, and I've been playing White 2, and I haven't even _started_ the 4th game I got for Christmas! It's still wrapped up in plastic... and this is before I get my birthday present!

Eesh, I'm a busy person. But at least exams are all done! :D

Thank you all for the reviews, and once again, replies are at the bottom. Enjoy this chapter, as much as I enjoyed writing it! ;)

* * *

7 - Turkey with Your Tea?

I don't believe I've ever felt more embarrassed. And that's commendable, considering all I've went through this past...what, week?

Under Genesis' magnificent, and relentless, and brutal tutelage, I had fallen over as I tried some sort of new exercise or stretch or something. The Commander had described it in such intricate detail, without once offering to demonstrate first, or helping me out in my positioning or _anything_. (As you can tell, the euphemisms got old very quickly. I'll be giggling when I think back after a long shower and a nap, but right now, they're all going straight over my head.)

Honestly, I was expecting him to poke me in my backside with my rapier, given how overenthusiastic he was about confiscating my precious blade from me, but for the last ten minutes, this training had seemed...strange, and somewhat disjointed in an odd way. Before now, he'd always knocked my feet out from under me when I did something wrong, or been happy to bash something that was somewhere it wasn't supposed to be (most often aforementioned caboose, or my head).

There hadn't been any of that for the last little while, something that relieved me and unnerved me at the same time. Something wasn't right - Genesis had never withheld from saying something that gave me unpleasant shivers - in a _bad_ way - or refrained from touching or prodding me in the most awkward way or place possible.

Over a weirder sounding Genesis roaring at me to get up and try again, I heard the unmistakable, chilling voice of a man I thought I wouldn't have to hear again for another while, a voice that sent my head throbbing and stomach stirring like it had when he'd delivered his first - and I'd imagine _not_ last - concussion to me.

"On your feet, Amell," he demanded, and before I knew it, I was staring at him, as close to eye-level I'd get on level ground (not so much eye-to-eye as eye-to-chest). Not a bad view, but given the situation, I wished he'd put on a sweater, or something.

"General, sir!" I nodded in a stiff stance in the General's direction, and was stupefied. "...Uh, Commander...?"

Sephiroth stood two steps in from the door, his arms folded, looking distantly amused but clearly more cheesed than anything. Or he could've just been serious.

But on the other hand, behind him was an open door...and where I assumed Genesis to be standing, a disinterested look on his face with eyes straying to that poetry he read, there was simply empty air. The Commander was nowhere to be seen.

"You must be observant, Cadet. Your tutor left the room over ten minutes ago," he berated, his face now emotionless as he stared at me, his head slightly bowed, but his stare was terrifyingly intense.

I blinked in surprise, and felt somewhat betrayed. _The man keeps me for hours, somewhat against my will, and he leaves - I could've been training for hours! I could've missed my class!_

With little options left, I bowed to the General with respect, and started forward to leave, until he spoke again, making me freeze in my tracks; "Cadet, you should thank me. My own gumption led me to make you aware of Genesis' deception, only because I expected too much of you in class yesterday.

"Which is why I advise you to be alert. Good lessons need taught only once. Do not expect me to aid you next time." The silver-haired General could've started warking like a chocobo and I wouldn't have been more staggered. I didn't know which I was more surprised by; the fact that he had showed up or that he had given me advice.

Did the General...well, did he like me? Chances were, we'd encounter each other more than he would other Cadets, so...would we get along?

As if to right himself, the General gave the slightest nod, and spun on his heels, before striding swiftly from the room and down the corridor. A few, very long moments later, and I regained the use of my brain, and so charged off in the other direction, straight to class - and to one that, yet again, had me on tenterhooks.

You see, this class was 'Situation and Reaction Training', which on the face of it sounds scary enough, but in reality was much worse; this class was led by Turks.

_Turks_, for Gaia's sake. Whoever planned these classes for tiny, unimportant Cadets sure weren't being lenient, what with classes with the General, and now apparently _three_ Turks were involved in this class.

And I couldn't live off of that piece of toast this morning! After hours of training with a man who was clearly insane (my ears getting the greatest workout) I could feel my belly's emptiness, and anticipated complaints coming from that general area in no time flat.

As I ran down the corridors, I rubbed it soothingly, before patting down anywhere I could have stored a little snack. I reached the elevator and came up with nothing, and apologised to my abdomen, going down a few floors in the empty elevator before charging down the corridors yet again.

It wasn't long before I encountered my class of Cadets, only instead of finding my usual three friends initially, I accidentally nearly bumped into two dark-haired well-built boys standing at the end of the group.

"Oh, gee, sorry you guys!" I apologised profusely, and glanced up as they turned at the same time - oh, it was _them_.

It had been a while since I'd spoken directly with the twins, not since that class with Angeal and my sword...it seemed like so much had happened since then, though realistically, it was what, half a week ago? Four or five or six days since then?

"Hey-hey! Nice to see you two again!" I greeted with a grin, wanting to make friends with the Reagan twins, only a moment later remembering the total _creepiness_ they had displayed when Ash had introduced us.

Michael's head tilted slightly downwards, staring at me in that same freakishly-predatory stare yet again, while Brandon folded his arms and pretended to look at me out of the corner of his bright green eyes. "Oh, hey. Cody, right?" he greeted, his head jerking upwards just slightly in the strangest greeting I've ever seen.

I shrugged off his mispronunciation, "Could be, I seem to have a lot of nicknames now." It didn't bother me, even though the mistake seemed far too deliberate to have been a mistake.

Brandon gave a little smile, and replied, "Seems like it. You're really making a name for yourself around Shinra, well, seems like it from our point of view anyway."

I was about to respond, sheepishly scratching the back of my head and grinning, until Michael cut me off, "What was training with the Commander like?"

I don't know why I was surprised that his voice was exactly the same as Brandon's - obviously, they were _twins _- but with how quiet and tough he was, I was expecting it to be a much deeper, rougher voice than the same strangely cheerful tone of his twin.

Two pairs of vibrant green eyes were riveted to me, and then I realized - I hadn't answered!

"Intense. A whole lot of tough training, you know. He set up a virtual..." I trailed off from my description, phasing out from finally feeling like I could talk to the two mysterious twins, as all the other Cadets seemed to fall into silence as well.

My eyes following the direction every other Cadet seemed to be looking, and I found myself staring at the now open door, with two _very familiar_ people in the doorway; on the left was that huge guy Zack, Will and I had encountered near the lifts, his arms folded and his face as stern-looking as ever, it seemed, and on the right...

Someone I recognised _far too well_. I ducked my head, fighting off a blush. Stupid _Turks_ and their _towels_...

I inconspicuously ducked through the crowds of Cadets - finding it quite easy, I wasn't very short, but I don't remember ever being _tall _- just managing to find Zack on his own as the red-headed Turk boisterously addressed us all.

He looked at me with an expression of light amusement and a little amount of panic, and I rolled my eyes before enquiring, "Where's Ash and Will?"

He folded his arms and readjusted his weight on his feet. "Would you believe, they're in a different class now," he answered with a huff. "While we're here getting a pounding from Turks, after training with First Class SOLDIERs, they get to play around with Materia."

"You're kidding," I rebuked, deadpan, and very faintly annoyed. Zack shrugged and shook his head, and we followed as our class was led into the room.

I was logical, and I knew if we were last into the room, Zack and I were bound to get noticed; I betted Reno was keeping an eagle eye out for us. Unfortunately, luck has a habit of avoiding me, and before I got a foot into the room, an obnoxiously-loud "A-ha!" to my left startled me.

A hand forcefully fell onto my helmet, and I was able to catch a glimpse of Zack's sheepish face before the room became a blur, and I was pushed towards a great black blob of a suit, which must've been the big guy from the lift.

So suddenly I got whiplash, Reno pulled me back, spun me and thrust me backwards towards the big Turk again, and I, feeling very much like a yo-yo, couldn't get my balance and simply staggered backwards.

My vision was blurry, though I could see what I thought was Reno shoving a loudly-protesting Zack face first into the floor, until a massive great black arm descended over my face, and his arm wrapped around my head.

I may have been worn out, and somewhat dazed, but instinct would not let me give in, and I struggled valiantly but hopelessly against the massive Turk, whose left arm then wrapped around my ribcage and chest to my right shoulder (sure I was bandaged up, but anything at all touching me in that region made me feel very sensitive and alert) and before I knew it, I was easily lifted off the floor, my back against his huge suited chest, my legs free to kick as much as they liked.

I got the distinct feeling like I had instantly failed this class. In seconds I had gone from a somewhat short, respectable Cadet, to a hysterical child kicking the air in the arms of a man who could, in less than a moment, snap my neck.

A few seconds later, when my kicking was beginning to slow down just a little, his right arm over my face eased a little, and retreated back enough for me to peer down beneath his arm. First thing I saw was Reno, grinning delightedly, crouched over a complaining and occasionally jerking Zack, Reno's fingers on Zack's neck.

I could only imagine that there was some sort of way Zack could be killed in an instant by Reno, who was holding the dark-haired Cadet down. Honestly, I felt considerably safer in this dangerous, uncomfortable Turk version of a bear hug.

The second thing I saw was, as half expected, the third and final Turk I recognised, standing with his back to the door we had all just come through, as impeccable as ever with his hands clasped behind him. Tseng looked in thinly-veiled satisfaction around the room, from Zack sprawled on the floor at the mercy of Reno, to the group of awestruck and very-much amused Cadets, to me, my struggling and kicking now considerably lacking in vigour.

With the slightest hint of a smirk, Tseng turned to the rest of the Cadets, and spread his arms out slightly. "Allow me to welcome you to 'Situation and Reaction Training'...I can clearly see we have some work to do here."

...

"Ha! This is brilliant!" Zack enthused opposite me in the cafeteria, happily munching on some unidentifiably-flavoured pie as he waved off a fellow Cadet neither of us knew the name of, who was happily clutching a newly signed cap with both of our names on it.

I was decidedly _lacking_ in enthusiasm by comparison, slowly chewing my way through the stickiest, chewiest '_bread_' I had ever tried in all my life, my head resting on the table.

Miraculously, right in the front row of that Turkey class was Kawi. Cadet Leonard Kawianinski, though always called Kawianinski or Kawi had already been labelled as the Cadet clown. The brown-haired Cadet rarely took anything seriously, and never got in trouble - I guessed it was because Zack, Will and I were constantly taking the heat.

Anyway, _somehow_, the idiot we had met on the way and had interacted little with since had managed to record that entire over-the-top class opening on a video recorder. I'm not even kidding, it had been around two hours since the class had dismissed, and already more people than I had been interested counting had come up to Zack and I to ask a question, or get an _autograph _- which was about two, at least...

Kawi had sent that video to every single person in Shinra, or so it seemed. Zack and I had become a bit of a laughing stock - naturally Zack lapped up the attention, staying true to his steadily-developing puppy-dog title, while I, in a somewhat miserable mood since my training with Genesis earlier that day, I was feeling the desire to retire to bed already, at a quarter past one in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, I still had to get through another of those Strategy classes with Ash's hero, SOLDIER Winterhold, which could total a good two hours before we'd be free. Why? Why did I have to get Genesis as my tutor?!

If it wasn't for that poetry-obsessed freak, I'd be happy as a clam right now. And he didn't even have the decency to dismiss me, just left me doing exercises to a recording! Who has a recording of their own _voice_? Genesis Rhapsodos cares as much for his beautiful _poetry_ as he does for _himself_!

Darn him! Him and Angeal and Sephiroth (my head still hurt a little, though I wasn't one to complain) and all the Turks, and those _dinner ladies_! They call this _food_? If a chocobo ate its own vomit and passed it, and _that_ was filled with illness-inducing refuse and waste, it would be healthier and much tastier than these...irrevocably disgusting piles of horrendous, filthy, nausea-inducing _crap_!

"Uh, Coby - you feeling okay pal?" Zack's finger poked my helmet-covered head, and I groaned in response, uncaringly dropping my bread on the floor. Zack sniggered, "I wouldn't have done that; don't look now, but those three Turks just came-"

I cut Zack's advice off with a completely unexaggerated groan, "OOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHhhhhh..." into the table, and peeked over my arms, glaring at the surrounding two tables of people staring. What right had they to look at me? I was talking to the table!

I closed my eyes and buried my head into my arms yet again, and too soon after, a smooth, serious voice spoke from close to our table, someone standing up, "I presume you have complaints about the general lack of finances that go into Shinra's culinary section, Amell."

I glanced up to someone I just _knew_ would come over, and sat upright. "Please, Tseng, feel free to join Zack and I for lunch. I'm pretty sure all of the kitchen's ingredients are...organic, to put it nicely," I sneered, gesturing him, Reno and the big guy (Rude, as I had discovered he was called) to take seats around the table. Zack snorted.

Tseng spoke a little, and I found myself completely tuning out the Turk, instead devoting what was left of my brain power to try to figure out just _why_ I was feeling all stroppy the past hour or so. I didn't even _mind_ Genesis' lesson that much this morning, and I wasn't offended by his abrupt and not especially considerate departure. If I had been, I had forgotten all about it with the realisation that _General Sephiroth had saved me from a late class_. And truthfully, it was quite fun; being manhandled by the massive Turk like that was brilliantly funny, not to mention a cool story to tell people. (_"I don't think I told you about that one time...I doubt you'd understand though; you haven't been bear-hugged by a Turk called Rude, have you?"_)

By the time I came out of my little inner monologue, Tseng and Rude had slid into the seats opposite me, Reno had sat to my right, and Zack was literally nowhere to be seen. Reno seemed relatively laid back, though the other two I examined critically - both were sat ramrod straight, both with especially serious expressions. One of the women who served the food I could see staring, a pretty teenager-ish blush covering her late twenties' cheeks, and after far too much ogling, disappeared into the kitchen.

Absentmindedly, as I thought on the reasons for my sudden quick temper, I listened to Tseng while staring intensely just to the right of his left ear, as he informed me, "I would like to ask you a few questions, Amell, regarding your background."

I could see a few people in the cafeteria beginning to glance over, and whispering very noticeably amongst themselves. I ignored them, and drank from my glass of water, before asking, "Is this normal? ...Procedure?"

"Strictly professional. We only ask because the Shinra database needs updating, just a few basic questions," Tseng assured, and my immature self thought nothing more of it, finally looking back to the Turk and nodding in a gesture for him to continue. Rude took a pen and notepad from his breast pocket, and I felt distinctly uncomfortable as Tseng began by asking, "Where did you say you lived before coming to Midgar?"

"I lived in Mideel before coming here," I replied, glancing between him and Rude. Tseng nodded, and the big Turk began to scribble.

"Family?"

I put on a smile, despite _really_ not wanting to, and despite feeling very little as I was just so caught up in finding out the reason for my frustration. "Parents and my twin sister, Sapphire," I explained shortly, lying. I was half-expecting the pen to go on fire with the rate Rude was scribing at.

"I understand you once said you had training with your parents. Care to explain?"

I scratched the back of my head and leaned back in my seat. "My dad made weapons in our old town, and mum was always into swords and stuff like that. They trained me for five or six or seven years before I left." I felt distinctly like I was giving my life story, though I couldn't help the feeling of deceiving the Turks - there was no word of a lie in that explanation, though it was much too vague even for Turks to get the true meaning of it.

"...Did your sister receive the same treatment?" Why did they need to know that? 'Sapphire' had nothing to do with the company!

"Yeah..." I began to improvise. "Yeah, but they didn't focus as much with her as they did with me. It was mostly just self-defence for Sapphy, yeah?" I answered, and I caught Reno looking at me intently as I took a sip of water, making me feel uncomfortable. _Was I that bad of a liar?_

"Does she do that too?" the redhead asked a second later, cutting off what would probably have been a far too personal question from Tseng, earning a glare from the Wutai Turk.

I raised an eyebrow in Reno's direction. "What? What do I do?" I enquired, setting down the glass and blinking uncertainly, before-

It came to me, in something of an epiphany; the answer to the question that had been plaguing my self-conscious. Why was I being so sensitive and stroppy? It came to me when I got the distinct feeling of a slightly paining stomach, and the distinct need to pee. _Ooh_...

Reno explained his question, but I wasn't really listening as I was more concerned with my conclusion, so I asked him to repeat it.

"Does your sister do that whole weird raising-eyebrows thing when she drinks too?"

I examined him curiously. "...What?"

Reno demonstrated; he picked up my glass of water and tilted it back to pretend to drink from it, only for his eyebrows to skyrocket as he mock-drank. He put the glass down, and explained, "When you drank just there, your eyebrows literally _disappeared_. I was just curious if she does that too."

I tilted my head, and shrugged noncommittally. "I don't honestly know, I didn't even realize I did it," I replied, and Reno moved his head in a strange way before relaxing back into the cafeteria seat. I checked the time, despite that I really didn't care, and began to excuse myself, saying, "Sorry Tseng, Rude, Reno, to cut this short, but it's about time for me to be heading to my next training session. Did you get all you need?"

Tseng, despite his nonchalant, calm expression, I could tell was somewhat frustrated, and he simply nodded distantly, not even caring with me any more - simply glaring at the redhead Turk diagonal across from him. I gave a friendly two-fingered salute in farewell to the trio of Turks, with only Rude seeming to acknowledge it with the slightest nod in my direction (it seemed as though the bear-hug at the start of class was a bonding moment for us!) before dashing off to the loo.

Before I had departed completely, I could hear Tseng saying, "Am I going to have to reintroduce writing lines in the naughty corner, or next time can you learn to _shut up_, Reno?"

On any other day, I would have sniggered at that.

* * *

"Genesis."

"WAKE UP!"

"Genesis!"

"To awake a Rhapsodos, or so it is said, one can only loudly tear his most beloved possession when he is near."

"...Has anyone seen LOVELESS anywhere?"

The red-headed SOLDIER in question slowly awakened, and with a loud, wordless groan to emphasize his discomfort, a hand slowly raised to caress his temples, thumping and throbbing painfully as they were.

The three SOLDIERs around him said nothing, sympathetic to the Commander, as he slowly sat up in the uncomfortable lab bed.

The Commander, even wincing as he was, managed to muster up the energy to glare at the only Second Class SOLDIER, who had been the one to coin the idea of ripping up LOVELESS. "_My friend, do you fly away now? To a world that abhors you and I..._" he quoted, his voice gruff, and the playful SOLDIER rolled his eyes.

"I _knew_ you'd say that," he responded simply, throwing his head back as if to say he was superior, even as Genesis paid him no mind, continuing to quietly recite the third act of his favourite poem to himself.

Angeal, the second person who had attempted to rouse Genesis (and the last one to speak before Genesis) turned to the grinning Second. "How's your burn?"

Genesis smirked slightly, showing his appreciation for the sudden change of the subject. The young teacher rubbed his arm where he had suffered as a result of over-excited Cadets and far too much leniency in classes, when one Cadet had snatched up some Fire Materia and had burnt his arm to a cinder. "Better, actually...but not by much," he muttered as a response.

Sephiroth and Angeal traded glances a second later, feeling slightly awkward. The three First Class SOLDIERs had been 'invited' to Hojo's lab for their usual routine injections, and as it was a rather private experience, for the past fifteen minutes they had been trying to come up with a way that could get the maimed Materia-enthusiast to leave, as they had waited for Genesis to wake up. It seemed excessive even to simply ask him to leave for a few minutes, as tactful as the two First Class SOLDIERs were.

Genesis, on the other hand, possessed none of the subtlety and consideration his two friends had, and shoo-ed at the SOLDIER with his right arm in a sling. "Merowian, go, leave, depart for a while, as I talk with Sephiroth and Angeal."

The two non-bedridden First Classes grimaced slightly, but were surprised as the Second simply shrugged, and walked calmly from the room. Genesis looked at his two friends with half-closed eyelids, a knowing grin on his face, before he shifted to make himself more comfortable in the bed.

After this, he was the first to ask, "How did yours' go?"

Sephiroth folded his arms over his chest, and swayed slightly as he rested more weight on one leg than the other. "Fairly smooth. This month was leagues improved from my last injection," the silver-haired General was the first to respond, and Genesis felt the slightest bit jealous, pressing his unusually bare fingers to his forehead.

After a pause, Angeal replied, "As usual. Hojo said he'd made the solution more concentrated, but my reaction to it was no different."

Genesis flopped back on his pillow, looking at his friends, both of whom looked somewhat concerned with the Commander in the bed. "Mine was no different, or so Hojo said. And yet, I end up blacking out...did Hojo say anything?" he questioned thoughtfully, trying to ignore his frustration.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Very little, and what he said was mumbled to himself. I don't think he knew the reason either," he informed the under-the-weather SOLDIER.

Miserably, the redhead reached for his gloves, left on the small table by his head, and pulled them on. "How much longer will I have to stay? Did Hojo tell you?" he enquired, lazily stretching the muscles in his arms.

Sephiroth looked to Angeal, who simply shook his head. "I heard nothing from him. Seconds after you fell unconscious he was out of the lab like a shot," the dark-haired Commander clarified.

Genesis rubbed his head, though he was careful to smooth his hair down after; it was messy enough as it was, after his impromptu nap, and he didn't want it any worse than it already was. "I'm not really sore anymore. I had a little headache, but-"

"Then go!" All three SOLDIERs instantly snapped their heads to the interrupting new arrival, as the greasy scientist-in-question strode into the room with his eyes locked on a few charts in his hands. "If you're awake and well, you're being a waste of space, and that is something I will not have! Go, now, and do whatever little it is you SOLDIERs do in your time."

It was nearly as though Hojo had fired a round of bullets into the ceiling. Quicker than the mind could conceive, Genesis had leapt out of the bed, already fully dressed and strode straight past the professor, the tail ends of his coat floating in the little breeze he had created as he left the lab.

Angeal spared a small glance at Hojo before leaving, inwardly feeling somewhat ill at the sight of the man. Sephiroth didn't even glance, and if he felt any discomfort, no one could tell to look at the silver-haired Hero's face, as solid and neutral as a brick wall.

A few moments later, the three SOLDIERs were walking down the corridors side by side, though Angeal was examining Genesis with a critical glance, as the red-clothed First Class winced and noticeably slowed his pace, his eyes narrowing.

"Headache?" Angeal asked a nearly pointless question, as the trinity slowed to a rather hasty stop. Genesis, holding a now gloved hand to his forehead with it tipped backwards, spared a moment to open one eye and stare derisively at his childhood friend, before letting it slide shut once again.

"_Yes_, Angeal," he confirmed sarcastically. Sephiroth folded his arms as Genesis continued, "It'll pass. I'll be fine in a second."

His fingers slowly rubbed soothing circles on his temples, and moments later Sephiroth pseudo-casually observed, "You're fairly pale, you need rest."

Genesis glared at the General, but faltered as he saw Angeal's stern expression. "Sephiroth's right... At the very least, let's get you to the Common Area. Could help you relax a little."

Genesis grudgingly agreed, and at a considerably slower pace, they started for the First Class SOLDIER living area. As they got into the elevator, they were joined by a young woman, fully dressed in Third Class SOLDIER uniform and with a gun strapped to her back.

She looked in curiosity and concern at the trio. Genesis missed the gesture, as his eyes were closed and his face parallel to the floor. "Sirs. I hope you are feeling well," she said politely, dipping her head and her knees ever-so-slightly bending.

Angeal smiled slightly, looking from the woman to his childhood friend. "Genesis just has a small headache, Adams, nothing for you to be concerned about," he replied amiably, looking back to the woman, ignoring the glare coming from Genesis from the corner of his eyes.

"Of course, my apologies," she replied quietly, and Angeal, friendly and big-brother-ish as he was, launched into a rebuke as he felt 'the apologies were unnecessary' and 'sirs are impersonal'. The Third Class said nothing, and simply smiled and waved, perhaps slightly more uneasy as she left the elevator and allowed the trinity to continue their journey to the living area.

Despite the delay caused by Genesis' slowed pace, it was a short time before the three reached their destination, and Genesis was quick to collapse on a sofa, resting his head on a cushion - then shifting - then resting back down on it again - then puffing it up and resting on it again - then sighing loudly and turning onto his back - then sitting upright. "Lazard must be informed. We need better cushions for this room," he complained, rubbing his head.

Sephiroth watched the redhead's antics in composed amusement, a small, simple grin on his face, his arms folded as he stood a few paces back from the sofa, before leaning back to settle against the wall. "You would have Lazard update the cushions every time we come from the lab," the General observed casually.

Genesis stared at the SOLDIER General with narrowed eyes for a beat or two, and then replied, "Not if he had learned the first time...anyone could tell these cushions must've been made from rocks and shale, or something equally uncomfortable."

Angeal came from the counter, carrying two steaming cups of tea. He offered one to Genesis, who accepted without a word, and drank a sip of his own. "Perhaps you should buy your own cushions, Genesis. Or build a new bed up here. It could be a good bonding activity for you and Blue," he suggested, a small smirk on his face. Sephiroth smiled slightly, nodding his agreement.

Genesis did not reply for a few moments, but when he did, he worried Angeal even more than if he had stayed silent; the flamboyant SOLDIER Commander clicked his fingers. "That's perfect!" he declared in delight, collapsing back into the seat and taking a careful sip of the tea.

Angeal and Sephiroth shared equally concerned expressions, as Genesis took out his PHS and quickly made a call, before holding it up to his ear.

"Amell!" he barked. "Come to the First Class Common Area immediately!"

* * *

('Reno moved his head in a strange way before relaxing back into the cafeteria seat.'

Thank goodness I reread this. I had Reno relaxing back into the cafeteria 'sink' a few moments ago...XD)

I can't thank everyone enough for their persistence in giving me wonderful, glorious feedback for my story! I couldn't be happier that you guys appreciate what I'm writing so much! Heh heh, I can't help grinning when I see new e-mails... ;)

Catslock: A new fan-yay! Welcome! And as for the thought of a love triangle...allow me to provide a reasonable justification for declining;

1) I'm a silly writer. I can't help writing silly, so I don't think I'd be dramatic or serious enough to manage a love triangle and take it seriously. I could try it in future stories when I (hopefully) have improved...But naw, not for Sapphire, anyway.

2) As for Sapphire...well, if she were in a love triangle, she strikes me as the type to just go, "Sorry, but I prefer that guy." :D

Plus, I think I'd feel awkward enough describing _one_ relationship. And how do you know there will be one? *shifty eyes*

...Ha. Hope to see you again! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

AnonyMouse: The name _is_ clever. I like clever names *gestures to the Pikachu* given I called myself Sparky. And thank you! Yet again I feel my ego growing and growing when I read your review!

Hmm...I'm thinking _maybe_, though I expect one day the _glue_ will not be enough to keep her helmet on! (Buut, there will be a different sort of interaction between Genesis and 'Cobalt' that I intend to be more iconic than this.) Ahh, and I love the scenes between 'Cobalt' and Genesis, though I could never have described their banter as well as you just did! 'slightly-cumbersome tete-a-tete greatness'...Those are adjectives I just live for! :D

...Yeah, you've got your eyes open! The only reason she didn't react more dramatically to the coincidental similarities was because of Genesis - as her tutor, when he is anywhere close, she will always feel the need to prove herself. Not just because she was one of the few chosen to be privately tutored, but also because she doesn't want to seem weak; given that she is trying to keep up the act of being male, she'll not let herself relax. At least until she gets to be more comfortable in Shinra. In english, she's bottling it up to deal with when she can be a bit more of herself...I'm expecting something of a breakdown when that happens. It's just as unpredictable to me as it is to you! ;)

Ha ha! I think I answered one of your questions with this chapter! The Turks are far too cool to be left out for too long...and if anyone will figure out who the mother is, it's gotta be Tseng. I mean, he's the one who's been _enquiring about her past _and_ looking at old reports..._ Take from that what you will.

After a small bit of research into concussions, I discovered this; 'Get plenty of sleep at night, and rest during the day' is a good way to recover. I don't claim to be a doctor, but it seems to make sense, to help the brain heal. Unfortunately, Zack is _also_ not a doctor, and he doesn't have Google at his fingertips. To be fair though, you'd have expected Sapphire to want to visit a doctor...but there you go. Perhaps another unconscious decision to keep herself looking tough.

Ahh, the original plan _was_ to have Sapphire sleeping when Angeal and Genesis arrived. I'm not really sure when it changed, to be honest, but I loved that scene! And...I _suppose_...I may rustle something up, all for your benefit, as to the little chocolate-snacking-midnight-feast dealie with Zack. Because I am just a lovely person like that. Look forward to it - I hope to have it done and posted later in the week! :D

Thank you for that, and good luck for you too-even if I am a little late in saying so. I hope you get your wished results! And I appreciate the, uh, 'fantasmic' review! ;)


	8. Innuendos

Did you read the other little story? Did you enjoy it? Should I do another?

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Heh, it's fun to write those little spin-offey-things! Considering writing the main story can get monotonous after a while, it's fun to get a little break! And usually my breaks don't involve more writing...usually I start a new game on something or draw a little, whatever.

Like, we had a few days off school, so what did I do? Started playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and did NOTHING else. 21 hours clocked over two days, and that's good, considering I had to eat and clean up after myself and shove in some time for writing...

...and homework. Yup, of _course_ I did homework over half term. (Not.)

I think you'll like the next chapter. Should be fun. But some bits in this one just made me laugh! :D

Enjoy the chapter!

Ah, yes. Because you've read Chapter 7 of this story (at least, I _expect_ you have!) then you can go read **Chapter 1** of 'Sapphire's Shinra Shenanigans', alright? Just a little extra bit for the fun, as requested by AnonyMouse! Enjoy!

* * *

8 - Innuendos

Nobody has ever emerged from the bathroom as I have looking so miserable, not before today. The only two advantages to this was that I'd get it over with and start afresh next week (what can I say, I'm a very optimistic person) and that since I'd found out, my now-explicable irritability will instantly clear up.

Because that happens to me. You don't need to tell me it's odd, I know.

I still felt miserable, but I could only hope that would clear up, if not in the next hour then by the end of the day. I didn't expect it to be cleared up for a while, at least; these 'Strategy and Tactics' classes _already_ seemed boring, and we've been in one class where we started a huge debate, just for funsies.

You can sense my excitement, can't you. I'd have put a question mark after, but I think I was so unenthusiastic and drained, I couldn't put in the effort to raise my voice to a high enough pitch for it to sound like a question.

I stopped in the corridor, and slapped myself on the cheek. "Come on, Amell," I motivated myself under my breath, even as a few Shinra employees glanced over in curiosity, as to what the slap was for. "Get a grip. You've gotten through the death of your parents, you've been training half your life for this, and you're whinging because of _this_?"

The glances in my direction were less scornful and more worried now, but I ignored them and started forward again, shaking my head in an attempt to brush off my defeatist attitude in my head.

As quick as anything however, I straightened ramrod straight, as a dark-looking man and a mirror approached me.

...Heh, got you. It was the Reagan twins. Come to think of it...this was the first time meeting them outside of classes.

I grinned, despite that little voice telling me that I'd rather be anywhere else right now, waved and jogged to meet the two. "Hey hey hey, Brandon and Michael! How are things?" I greeted, acting as cheerful as possible.

One folded his arms and didn't change his expression, simply remaining his tough and cool exterior - by process of elimination I decided that he was Michael. Therefore it was Brandon who cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly as he examined me. "Cobalt," he started smoothly, his eyes slightly narrowed, "Are you warm? You look, heh, a little flushed..."

After a beat's pause, I replied, "...Naw, I'm good. I guess this shirt is warmer than I thought - you know, I'm not used to long sleeves, I always used to wear t-shirts, but now I thought I was getting used to them, but I guess not, since I am pretty warm and all..." I was not proud of myself after rambling on for such a long time. Even Michael was now looking at me weird, as well as Brandon.

"..._Right_. Where are you going?" Brandon responded a few moments later.

"I've...got a little errand to run, I need to stop off at my apartment. Uh, why?"

Brandon tapped a finger on his wrist, in the worldwide known gesture for time. "'Strategy and Tactics' class, we all need to be there in ten. You've got time, but seconds fly by," he advised with a small smile.

I considered the time, and nodded. "Yeah, ten minutes, should give me enough time to get there and on to the classroom," I speculated, and started jogging past them, waving gratefully to them over my shoulder. "Thanks, Brandon! See you Michael!"

"Any time! See you in class!" Brandon shouted back, and I found myself smiling as I jogged lightly down the corridors. _I should stop judging people prematurely. That was nice of Brandon!_

I arrived at the apartment, prepared myself for the day, heaved a breath - suddenly having a sunnier outlook on the day - and started towards the classroom.

Strangely though, about two minutes away from the class, I got a call on my PHS. From Ash... "Ash, hey! What's up?" I greeted when I answered the call.

"_Uh, where are you?_" her voice was oddly hushed, and I slowed my pace slightly, furrowing my brow.

"On my way to class," I replied, "Why do you ask?"

After a few moments of background chatter that I couldn't make out, I heard her again, as she said, "_That's fantastic. But why aren't you HERE?_"

"Gee, that's not necessary! What's the problem?" I grimaced after the last word was hushed, but deliberately spoken way too close to the microphone. My eardrums pulsed a little.

"_Class started at LEAST five minutes ago. SOLDIER Winterhold hasn't noticed yet, but I thought you knew what time's started at!_" she berated, and I inwardly grinned as I started to run, at the phrase 'hasn't noticed'.

"I did! I was under the impression that class wasn't starting for another ten minutes, eight minutes ago!" I argued back.

There was a short pause, and Ash's disbelieving voice later replied, "_How could that be? Brandon and Michael said they found you in the corridor and told you class was starting! Did you mishear them?_"

I shook my head, completely perplexed - a state of mind that lasted a very short, blissful few seconds. "No, I heard the-_oh_."

_Darn Reagans! Very smart, with your 'class starts in ten'. Score one to you guys. But just wait, you two...I have plenty of tricks up my long, comparatively warm sleeve._

"Be there in a minute, Ash," I guaranteed, deadpan, and shut off the PHS before full-out sprinting to the veteran SOLDIER's classroom.

With that pace, I reached it in no time flat, and as swiftly and silently as possible, I opened the door and peaked in. From my vantage point he could not see me - something I found miraculous, considering all teachers _I_ knew would make sure they could see every inch of where their pupils would be - and the moment he first turned his back, I darted into the room, sat as obscurely at the back as I could, and kept my head low for the rest of the class, only glancing up to stare with a competitive and vaguely impressed expression in the direction of the two twins. I had a feeling they picked up on it, or maybe Michael did and told Brandon, I didn't know.

Either way, I believe they got the message. It was _on_.

...

"Ugh, Gaia, this has been the worst day of my life, _ever_. Crap, I could just-! Leave me alone, world! _Please_!"

How miserable it was, that the toilets had turned into a place where I could vent. I complained to the cubicle door as I went about my business, and when I exited, I froze.

Opposite me, standing by the sinks, was that very same girl SOLDIER I met the day I came to Midgar. Her eyes were wide as she stared at me in such a way that I couldn't feel more exposed if I was standing in the General's office, completely naked.

_WHY did I just think THAT?!_

"...Uh..." I grumbled quietly, and cleared my throat, getting it back to its usual '_Cobalt_' pitch. "...Ma'am..."

Excruciatingly slowly, I edged around the woman and made a break for freedom at a far-too-slow pace, but was intercepted before too long. "No no no, nope, no way," she hastily rebuked, grabbing me by the scruff of my Cadet uniform and yanking me back into the room in front of her.

I looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes, once again trying to replicate Zack's puppy-dog look. And yet again, it seemed that if it had a chance of working, it would never be with me.

"Don't even!" she warned abruptly, wagging a finger, before running a hand through her blonde hair. She examined me critically for a moment. "You're that Cadet who found me a few weeks ago, yeah?" she questioned, and I knew there was little else I could do but nod, which I did with a sinking feeling. "But who the _haystack_ are you?" she cried, very quickly sounding hysterical.

Meanwhile, I was hysterical in a different way. "'_Haystack_'?" I repeated, giggling, my usual voice shining through yet again since I knew I was screwed by now.

"Stop!" she demanded, and I snapped upright, silent. She didn't say anything for a few moments - it seemed as though she hadn't planned that far ahead - so I considered something.

"Hang on, why am I not in the men's toilet?" I disbelievingly rebuked, before putting a finger to my chin speculatively. "Come to think of it, I've never seen a sign, or anything..."

The SOLDIER raised an eyebrow, before replying, "Uni-gender bathrooms."

Everything was silent for a moment, before I turned to look at her in weary exasperation. "You must be kidding. Big advanced company, number one on technology and all that stuff, huge numbers of staff, and they have one bathroom for everyone?"

She said nothing, and then nodded, in far too cheerful a manner. In that moment, I was so filled with wordless fury, I growled and stomped my foot, and slowly composed myself.

And when I did, I shouted, "What the-"

"-Haystack!" the SOLDIER interrupted my exclamation, and there was little else I could do but stop for a few moments, and then laugh.

She joined my laughter, and after I regained my composure - _again _- I stuck a hand out to her. "Cobalt Amell, you can call me," I introduced myself, and she accepted the handshake heartily.

"Pleasure to meet you. Third Class Ciara Adams," she replied, gesturing to herself, and then she put a hand on her hip. "So, how many people know?"

I rubbed the back of my head, and replied, "As far as I know, you're the first. I mean, I've only been here a week or so!"

She grinned. "Well, you're not exactly quiet about it," she teased.

"I need to get going, anyway," I told her, checking my watch. "My friend Ash will be making us all some food, and she'll be annoyed if I don't show up on time for it."

Ciara looked at me critically. "Ash, she? And you haven't told her about...this?" At my shake of the head, she grimaced. "You should tell her, girl. Guys will be shocked if you tell them, but if you're in any way close to this girl, it'll be hard for her to forgive you. Girls expect to be told these things you know," she told me.

I raised an eyebrow. "How do you know all this?"

"I _am_ a girl. Plus I've had to cope with some of that sort of stuff before. Anyway, the sooner you tell her, the more likely she'll forgive you when you do. And if you don't actually tell her and she finds _out_, you might as well say goodbye to _that_ friendship," she advised.

"Uh..." I had little to say, so I thanked her, waved in the most awkward way possible, and was out of the bathroom like a shot.

Weirdest...conversation...ever.

Little did I know, that statement was going to be proven false in the shortest possible time.

An upbeat, electronic ringtone accompanied the loud vibrating in my pants pocket, and I pulled out my PHS before fumbling with it a little, and eventually answering the call.

"Ya huh?" I greeted the caller in a way that was probably _way_ too laid-back and informal, considering I had no idea who was calling. It could've been the Director or the General or Genesis for all I knew. Hopefully not the latter.

"Amell!" came a familiar barked command, and I rolled my eyes at the irony. "Come to the First Class Common Area immediately!"

Before my brain cells could get in line and decide what to say or do first, I was hung up on. I pulled the PHS away from my ear and stared at it for a long time, before slowly putting it back into my pocket and starting my newest, lone adventure by putting my best foot forward first, closely followed by my left foot, and the pattern repeated itself as I aimlessly walked down the hallways of the Shinra building, yet again with no idea of where to go and only a very small idea of where I was already.

The first thing I decided, as I headed in the direction of what I hoped was the elevators, was that I was in a better position this time than I was with Zack and Will. In other words, one fairly insane head was better than three fairly insane heads, which did make sense.

So, instead of having Zack pick out random floors for us to ransack and tear apart in our search of our destination, I decided that a reasonably sane thing to do would be to catch an elevator ride to the ground floor, find a smart-looking receptionist and ask _them_ where the...place is that Genesis is at, and then simply go up there.

...Yes, I've forgotten already. It'll be forever before I find the elevators, so that's fine! I'll remember on the-

Oh.

Tilting my head at my sheer brilliance of finding the lifts so easily, I shrugged, plastered on a satisfied grin, and pressed the little button. Silence reigned for a few moments, and I started tapping my foot - until from above, where the elevator seemed to be coming down, I heard a familiar voice shout, "_Pleeeeeeease_, Rude, you know how so much writing kills my wrist!"

I panicked, and started frantically hitting the button, in hopes that it would make the elevator decide to skip the floor. "Tseng only asked you to write a small summation of Turks in the last twenty years; it could have been much worse."

Quickly realising that of all my ideas, this was one of the worst, I action dived behind the closest solid visible object, being a potted plant with the thinnest stem possible, just to annoy me obviously. "Oh please, what Turks have been around in the last twenty years anyway? No one really important. If he was gonna give me a task about old Turks and stuff, he could at _least_ have extended it for Valentine, yo."

I pondered to myself, _are the elevators really so thin that I can hear their entire conversation?_ I thought it was rather weird, but shrugged it off as the lift came to a stop, and with a cheerful 'ding!' the doors slid open.

"Uh..." Reno mumbled, before peaking out through the doors. I hid myself further down as he looked around in my direction, and finally heard the click of a button. "Someone jokin' around. Probably that Cadet hiding behind the plant."

I let my head loll and heaved a breath, grinning and shaking my head, as the doors to the lift closed and descended further. I decided I couldn't take another heart attack this afternoon, and elected to go for the stairs.

I stormed down those stairs like I actually _gave_ a crap what was so urgent that Genesis wanted me immediately ten minutes ago, and once I reached the ground floor, I jogged up to the first executive-looking person I could see. "Excuse me, can you tell me where the First Class Common Area is? On which floor?" I enquired, and shook my fist at the air. "Kooky building sense no makes!"

The man behind the counter tossed his longish hair and offered a giggle, and I immediately felt rather uncomfortable as he rested his head on a hand and leered at me openly. "I know where that is. Just what business do you have there?" he enquired, his eyes narrowing playfully.

I was stumped, and completely unsure of how I should play this out. "I've...been requested by...Commander Rhapsodos..."

"_OOH_! You mean _Genesis_? How did I know that already?" he enthused, and positively jumped out of his seat, clapping his hands together. "I can take you up there, cutie pie-"

"NO!" I hollered, and unfortunately, the only person in the area to _not_ stare in an offended way was the man himself - he simply maintained his innocent look. "The visit is...strictly professional. I'm a Cadet, he's tutoring me!" I pleaded him to understand, and he slowly sat back down, sending me a kinky wink.

"Oh, I believe you...you adorable hunk of man!"

_Ya WHAT?!_ Startled and entirely mystified by his abuse of the Gaian language, I simply answered, "Please, just, tell me where I'm going. And I dare you, try any funny stuff; I've got the sharpest sword you've ever seen in my room and I'm not afraid to unleash it on your ass."

If anything his expression simply grew more mischievous; and he - _finally _- started scribbling down on a blank, small piece of paper. I let out a relieved sigh, and looked around, only now noticing what might as well have been the entire floor staring at me, the mix of people either looking extremely offended or red-faced with laughter. I raised an eyebrow, pulling a confused expression, but shook my head and turned back as the man handed over the small piece of card, and explained in the most _inappropriate_ tone of voice ever where to go through the corridors.

"_Thank_ you," I wholeheartedly expressed my appreciation, snatching the card from him, and he laughed me out of the room as I charged for the lift. I pressed the button for the lift, and as I waited, examined the card.

In a small corner of the card was the numbers '61' and taking up the rest of the card was scrawled in blue pen, "Call me, cutie!" along with his number and love hearts all over the blank spaces. He hadn't even given his name...

_Of all the things you think, you lament over him not giving his name? You need to let your hair down, literally, or you're head's gonna be SCREWED!_

I threw the card in the bin, and entered the recently-arrived lift, thankfully with no Turk in sight. With silence in the small space, I was given time to think about the extremely odd encounter, but it still didn't make sense by the time I reached floor 59, meaning I had to take the stairs from here.

It could've been worse, but after everything that had happened today; the Turks, Ciara and now what's-his-name, I wasn't sure if I was ready to face Genesis Rhapsodos anymore. Regardless, I bounded up the stairs for the two floors, eager to burn off some excess energy.

When I emerged on the floor for the First Class Common Area, exiting the stairway and looking from left to right, I stopped, and my shoulders sagged, as my eyes snagged and remained on an especially familiar-looking potted plant with the thinnest stem possible.

"I could kill this building, I really could," I muttered, punching the wall as hard as I dared as I came out into the corridor, looking around before starting down the hallway he had told me of. "It doesn't even make any _sense_!"

Surprisingly, the receptionist's instructions were clear and correct, and it wasn't long - though it had been something around fifteen minutes since I received the call from Genesis - until I arrived at the place he had described. And sure enough, Genesis was there...and Sephiroth, and Angeal-_eep_!

I didn't know why I was expecting any different, but whatever. Cut me some slack, it's been a vastly weird day.

Angeal was sat back comfortably on a sofa, but upon my arrival, he observed me sympathetically as he slowly got to his feet, lazily fiddling with an empty mug. He carried it over to a kitchen area - which looked much better designed than ours in our apartment, much like the rest of the room - and set it in the sink.

Seph-_General_ Sephiroth simply stared at me, expressionless and analysing, his arms folded and he looking decidedly uncomfortable where he sat in an armchair that looked to be just slightly _too_ lightly coloured for such a serious and powerful man to be sitting in it.

Genesis glanced in my direction from where he had been pacing in the middle of the room, and heaved a sigh, before (in an unbelievably elegant-looking move) collapsing down onto the seat Angeal recently vacated, and complained, "You're late, Amell."

...Oh, he did NOT just go there...

* * *

Angeal had the right idea.

Genesis was an impatient man, by nature. He had simply always been that way; so for him to start pacing, making him if anything more ill and restless, seemed just like the SOLDIER Commander.

Genesis had neglected to tell Angeal and Sephiroth what he had planned for his newest little protégé, and constantly changed the subject over the past while when the two had tried to pry information from the red-haired First Class, so Sephiroth had reason to believe that it was some menial task to benefit Genesis and irk the Cadet, or to use Cobalt as a distraction for his ill mood and health, benefitting Genesis and irking the Cadet.

It seemed as though the blue-haired Cadet would be the one obtaining 'the short straw' (to use a phrase he'd learnt from Angeal) no matter the situation.

But given the occurrences of the first Cadets' class today, something that everyone in _Midgar_ knew by now, this had probably been a long day for Cobalt. Also, the trio had gotten wind of the same three Turks responsible for the class embarrassment tracking him down during his lunch and asking him questions, likely making him late for his next class.

It sounded like it had been a bad day for the young Cadet, and as the blue-topped boy trailed in, Sephiroth knew his summation had been right. His blue eyes had cautiously darted around the room, taking in the three First Class SOLDIERs, and as Genesis settled on the sofa and complained of the Cadet's tardiness, his eyes flashed, and his expression grew thunderous.

Angeal had removed himself from Genesis' seat and had escaped to the kitchen area. Sephiroth had remained in his armchair, not previously seeing the need to remove himself from the room.

Angeal had the right idea.

"Am I late? Really, am I late? I should say I'm sorry, shouldn't I? WELL, I've had it up to _here_ with this day! I've been made a laughing stock of, and though that didn't really bother me, it's beginning to! Then, of all things to happen at lunch time, I was _hounded_ by _Turkeys _- and though that didn't bother me either, it annoys me! Then I was deceived into thinking I had time to spare for class by some of my creepiest peers, which _did_ bother me, and now I'm going to get into a huge war with those guys! And _then_ I discovered that we have uni-_gender_ bathrooms and made a right idiot of myself in front of the only girl SOLDIER I'm likely to meet, _then_ I got cornered by the _same_ two Turks in a lift and I had to hide behind a plant, and then I was hit on by that weird receptionist on the ground floor, and I think I offended some people, and then I had to come up _again_..._Forgive_ me for being late, Commander Rhapsodos, would you like me to commit myself to suicide to entertain you? Because it seems that's all I can do _right_ about now, and I'm feeling like this is the _perfect_ time for my _death_!"

Sephiroth, somewhat disapproving of Cobalt's unload of pointless information and complaining, sent him a look that demonstrated exactly that. The slightly out-of-breath Cadet seemed to catch the glance, and noticeably ducked his head.

Genesis, on the other hand, seemed to care little for his ward's well-being. In fact, the Commander seemed content enough to examine his gloves throughout Cobalt's rant, and a few seconds after he had finished, Genesis had picked a microscopic piece of fluff from the red leather and blown it away from himself.

A deliberate few beats later, Genesis had looked casually up from behind his gloves. "Are you quite done, Cadet?" he enquired, his voice a lazy, unconcerned drawl.

Sephiroth's disapproving gaze swept instantly to Genesis, as the blue-haired teen rubbed an elbow with his other hand, before meekly replying, "Yeah, sure..."

A thick-with-tension few moments later, Angeal appeared from behind the counter. "Receptionist on the ground floor...? You mean Tanya?"

"Nope," answered Cobalt, swiftly shaking his head.

"Jackie?" Angeal guessed again, and rubbed the small stubble on his chin as Cobalt once again replied in the negative, slowly and noticeably getting a little redder in the face. "You mean-_oh_, no, you didn't speak to _Verne_, did you?"

At the name, Genesis barked a laugh. "For your own peace of mind, you won't want to look at any news reports for the next week or so. Verne has ways of making a scene and getting things...public," the red-haired SOLDIER advised, snorting and shaking with laughter.

Angeal could do little else, but nod in agreement to his childhood friend's words, even as Cobalt seemed to just get more and more hot and uncomfortable.

Sephiroth seemed confused, "I have never met this man, I believe. What is so...?"

The General didn't quite know how to finish the sentence, but it seemed he didn't have to. His two First Class companions were quick to assure him that encountering this 'Verne' person was the last thing any and every self-respecting man wanted to do.

If anything, despite his beet red, embarrassed face, Cobalt seemed little else but weary. "I think I may have accidentally - it's fine, it doesn't matter; it'll blow over. Sir, what did you call me here to do?" he enquired, though half the time he seemed to be having a discussion with himself, as he seemed happy enough to avoid looking at the SOLDIERs by resting his forehead in his hand and covering his eyes with it.

"Ah!" Genesis proclaimed, and in an interesting move, leapt to his feet. Sephiroth, Angeal and Cobalt, all three staring and with nothing to say, watched as the flamboyant First Class removed his coat, rubbed his forehead for a second with a gloved hand, and settled back into his seat. His large leather coat was placed with the utmost respect and delicacy folded beside him.

Nothing was said, and silence reigned, even as the Commander released a sigh, relaxed back into the seat, and threw his arms over the back. Eventually he reopened his eyes, and rolled them, before gesturing the younger boy forward with a finger.

Puzzled, Cobalt stepped forward, until Genesis made his intentions clear by simply demanding, "Give me a massage, kiddie."

Cobalt blinked, and seemed to get more uncomfortable with the request. "Uh...what?" he stumbled over the word a little, his blinking becoming slightly rapid.

Genesis raised a sceptical eyebrow at the out-of-place Cadet. "Did I stutter? I want you to give me a massage. Around my head and neck area, I find myself rather tight and painful around those areas; though I don't want you to be too rough, those areas can be quite sensitive for me."

"You...can't be serious," Cobalt seemed to be getting more and more out of his depth, holding his hands up as if to surrender. "I don't know how! I've never massaged before in my life! And my hands are always really cold..."

The boy's arguments were unimpressive, a thought quite obviously shared by the three First Classes, as they each shared an expression of boredom and disbelief. "I'll buy you a pair of gloves. Myself and my companions here will guide you, Amell, there is no time like the present, and I am _perfectly serious_."

Cobalt seemed unwilling to rebuke to that, after the two last words were spoken with deliberate emphasis, and after some hesitation, the boy's hands awkwardly rested on the sides of Genesis' neck. Under Genesis and Angeal's advice, and Sephiroth's unrelenting scrutiny, the Cadet slowly began to rub circles into tense points on the red-haired SOLDIER's head, neck and shoulders.

Genesis mused on his Cadet's massage carefully, as though this were a test for his student of some sort. The boy's fingers, though undeniably quite chilly, were tentative and touched him as light as he expected to get away with. Genesis quickly called him up on it, telling him that his neck was _not_ a twig, and though the kiddie was blushing to his roots, his fingers were slightly more confident as they pressed in places on his neck.

Genesis found it miraculous, as he had said himself he had never given a massage, but the boy was good! Somehow he seemed to instinctively know exactly where the points were he should press harder, or the points he should avoid...very curious, but the redhead was pleased. The Cadet would be an acceptable student...if only some of the blood gushing through his head right now could be diverted to the fingers.

And so it came to be, that the young Shinra Cadet's clumsy, cold and uncertain hands finally convinced the First Class Commander to accept him as his student. Well...in massages, at least.

(Aah, innuendos. :D)

* * *

Is it just me, or do I seem to give Reno the best lines? Heh, loved that bit.

Once again, thank you all for your reviews! I love hearing what you guys all think of Sapphire and her most recent exploits. Many, many thanks, and I hope you liked this one!

AnonyMouse: Heh, glad to see that you enjoyed the little other story! I was a little worried - I pictured the scene, but I wasn't too sure what all to put in - so I'm delighted it went down so well! And you are very welcome. Besides, I thank you too - I enjoyed writing it! :D

Heh, congrats on the 'decent grades' anyhow. I haven't got my results yet... I iz frustrated. ;)

...Oh, gee, you make me blush! When some stories I love are updated, I get so excited and chirpy...D'awwh, I'm getting the same feeling knowing I let someone else feel like that!

...Aah, now I understand. Heh, you'd think I'd have twigged that. Sapphire sleeping on her head seems _normal_ to me now. Gee, I'm crazy. And that eyebrow-drinking-thing was based on me! It's annoyed me so much ever since my friend pointed it out to me months ago. Now I carry a straw everywhere with me. :D

Hee hee...honestly, I found getting into the swing of making her act irritable and different...quite difficult. Considering I don't really get mood swings, much less knowing how to write them, I thought it was actually okay! I actually found her little rant, and the reactions after, to be quite fun to write. ;)

Aw, gee, I love that analogy! 'Like milk and chocolate stuff: you get chocolate milk, but there's always a bit left in the bottom that didn't mix quite.' I don't intend Sephiroth and 'Cobalt' to have too many one-on-one interactions with each other, partially because I'm not sure how he would react to some of her craziness since he isn't too well acquainted with her, but I like what little I've done between the two so far.

Ha, I so enjoyed that scene with the Turks. And Reno in this one! Thank you for the awesome review (and for understanding the annoying waits between updates) and I'll try to make the next one quicker! See you then! :D

WhiteWerefox: Welcome back! Happy to see you've liked this one!

Heh, yeah, I try to keep it lighthearted. But sometimes it's difficult to see how a joke will go down...I know half the funny stuff I say in real life just kinda flops, so I just have to laugh it off myself. XD

It _rhymes_?! You serious?! Well-I mean, yeah...that was intentional, don't you know. I'm all genius and stuff like that. And, uh...hopefully this chapter has cleared up the 'awkward bathroom' situation. Cubicles. Just to make it easier on silly old me. ;)

True enough, Sapphire should consider investing in a map, right? Probably one of those things you never think of until you're in a situation when you really need one, and then you just forget it again after. Heh heh, 'Turk Towel Incident'. I can't help hoping that's one of those things that gets brought up every now and then as an inside joke. Just to see how red a certain person's face can get! :D

And belated happy Valentine's Day to you too! And Pancake Day! Hang on, that was before, wasn't it...?

Anyway, goodbye for now! See you all next time!


	9. Cardboard Warfare

Hey, everybody! Enjoying the story so far? I should hope so-you should see the amount of effort it takes!

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Nor do I own Ben and Jerry's ice cream, the best ice cream in the world, _buuuuut_ I DID come up with the Final Fantasy alternative! Keep an eye out for that! :D

Just recently got into a bit of an X-Men funk. Watched X-Men: First Class earlier today, but ahh, it was just awesome. And that one moment with Wolverine...HA! XD

Ugh, this week has been _long_. Music festival on Tuesday, exam on Wednesday, and I've yet to come up with a good treat for Mum. I'll figure something out. I work well under pressure. ;)

Ooh, I had mahoosive fun with writing this one. I don't even know why...it was just kinda fun!

...Has anyone seen the moonwalking pony? Best advert ever? Duh! Seriously, if you haven't seen it, check it out on YouTube. Just a shame I haven't seen it on TV in what feels like ages.

* * *

9 - Cardboard Warfare

_BZZZT-_BANG!

"Watch out!"

"Gya-hahahaha_haa_!"

_ZZZ-KSH!_

"Ahh, geez!"

"WAY too close, teach!"

Silence...then, "Too close? I didn't hit you? Sorry, my mistake, that's never happened before. I guess it's understandable, after all, I was injured just a week ago. My aim must be a little off..."

After a short pause, the first voice hollered, "RUN!"

As you heard the most _hilarious_ teacher _ever_ say just there, it had been a week since that terrible day, when everything just got worse and piled on and on to me. I'm glad to say that everything worked out for the best.

Thankfully, the Turks have not spoken to me since. I had a class with them a few days ago, and they said nothing to me individually, which was good. I haven't seen Ciara, the girl Third Class SOLDIER since, though she had kinda gotten into my head; I was debating whether or not to tell Ash about my secret. I had not seen my great friend Verne since the disaster of the last encounter, and I had heeded Genesis' advice and avoided all possible ways of hearing local news, even now a week later, just to be cautious. And finally, the 'massage' I had given Genesis was thankfully short, had changed nothing about our relationship, and I had not been asked to give another; all these things I was extremely grateful for, because that would just be _awkward_.

As far as I could tell, Shinra had been saving the best class and teacher for last. Though Will and Ash had already experienced one class of 'Materia Training', it was mine and Zack's first time with the mischievous SOLDIER Second Class teacher, SOLDIER Edward Merowian, and I was thoroughly enjoying the lesson.

A Materia fanatic, the first class of 'Materia Training' he had with the other group ended early as he had to go to the infirmary, with some heavy Materia burns on his right arm.

And as a result, when he returned for our class, the already-excitable teacher was full-to-bursting with excess energy, and demanded that for our first class the entire floor had to be closed to the rest of the building, as we engaged in war with SOLDIER Edward Merowian.

I had to admit, the man certainly livened things up a little. Introduction to the class; we run, we hide, while he hunts us down with whatever amount of Materia he can carry. If we're hit, we're out and return to the classroom, and we have to try our best to either remove all his Materia, or knock him unconscious. Basically, those of our class brave and stupid enough to _not_ hide were going to have to cut him off from his Materia.

Me...well, I wasn't one of those people. I had enough attention on me already, I decided, and so I hid in the one place I'd feel safest and most secure.

No one would check in the _toilets_! Well, not so far at least, and I'd been locked in the third cubicle for a good ten minutes now.

Honestly, I was getting a tad uncomfortable. In an epic leap-of-faith moment I leapt from the seat, backwards, and hung myself on the hook on the back of the door. I figured it would give me an even better, hidden edge, but so far, it had simply made me nearly break my neck. Plus, now I was getting some startling pins and needles in my feet, which was making me somewhat nervous.

That, coupled with the echoing of footsteps outside leaving the area, coupled with knowing how extremely embarrassed I'd be if I was found hanging from a cubicle door, made me - _carefully_ - lift myself off the cubicle door, and fall to the floor, helmet banging off the toilet seat and leaving a crack down the middle of the seat... but at least I was off the door.

I sat on the floor for another few minutes before realising that it would be nearly just as embarrassing to be found _in_ the cubicle, so I unlocked the door and left.

Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to put myself more at ease. To make it seem normal, I washed my hands, and in a paranoid move decided against using the automatic dryer, just wringing out my hands and wiping them on my uniform.

Checking myself in the mirror, pushing up a few strands of the spiky ends of my hair to make them seem shorter, I nodded, and quietly and very slowly peeked out of the toilets.

With my heart stupidly pounding with the exhilaration, I jogged down to one end of the corridor, and peeked around the corner; nothing. I leaned back, gasped a few times, and charged forward into the corridor.

After a few moments, I slowed to a jog, then to a stop, and looked down at my feet. These boots...were _way_ too loud, and echo-ey. I stepped out of them, wiggled my toes on the cold, metallic floor (still wrapped up in thin black socks) turned the boots to face the other way, and started off again at a run, feeling infinitely more comfortable.

In a similar way, I peeked around the next corner - my heart still racing in excitement and fear - and was instantly confused, as I was met with a wall of cardboard boxes.

_Huh?_

I said nothing, and with a grin, I started to hike up the stack. The boxes were surprisingly sturdy, I figured they were all filled with all sorts of office equipment and SOLDIER stuff and other interesting doohickeys.

The mountain of boxes reached surprisingly high, and I peered over the top, to see a congregation of three Cadets whispering to each other. One spotted me, and I waved with a grin. He pointed to me, and each of them watched, as I hastily jumped down to the other side.

I approached the three, and they all grinned, greeting me with claps on the shoulder and hushed greetings. "So, who all's left?" I enquired.

They blinked, and someone - hang on, it was Riley! - replied, "That would be us four."

At my wide-eyed, disbelieving blink, one of my companions continued, "Well hey, you showed up out of the blue; some other fools might still be hangin' around somewhere!"

"Hardly," I answered with a roll of my eyes. "I came from hiding in the toilets."

"Your feet are _tiny_!" I double-took at Riley's shocked exclamation, and all attention diverted to my feet, all three boys laughing and comparing their Cadet boots to my socks.

I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up, but after I cautiously looked all around us. Being out in the open, in the middle of the corridor, didn't sit well with me...despite the fortifications built up behind us. SOLDIER Merowian could even approach us from behind, or could, I dunno, just shoot a fireball at us?

Slightly embarrassed, I got us back to the topic at hand, and the four of us made an extremely elaborate plan; a last attempt at succeeding where all our classmates had previously failed.

...

Clutching my left hand in agony - Riley didn't need to stomp _that_ hard! - I made my hasty way through the maze of boxes we had created in far-too short a time, before squidging the toe of one of my temporary squad-mates Sammy Rief, who kicked his boot in my direction as if to signal that he got the message. A second later, I was given a friendly punch on the shoulder by Riley as he flew past me, and I nodded to the two as I ran back the way Riley and myself had just come.

Eventually I emerged from the dark depths of the cardboard box maze, and knowing that SOLDIER Second Class Merowian was somewhere close by, I slowed my pace to a jog, and tried to look like I _didn't_ have a plan, or backup.

The echoing sound of clicking boots on the metallic floor somewhere behind me came to an abrupt and terrifying stop, and I skidded to a stop and turned, to see the grinning young teacher staring directly at me...a pair of Cadet boots under his arm. He held them out in front of him.

"You forget these, kiddo?" he enquired lightly, and my eyebrows shot up. "Good tactic, don't get me wrong. Creep around quietly...and you turned them to make me think you were headed in the opposite direction too, yeah?"

I was actually rather impressed with how easily he had figured out my two-second plan. I scratched the back of my neck, admitting, "Yeah, I guess I wanted to stall you, at least a little."

"Very good," he smirked as he complimented me. "Plus, that wall of cardboard boxes? You managed that all on your own, in this time? Granted, it wasn't exactly elaborate, but I can't help wondering how you found them all and got them set up. _Chocobo-fast Cobalt_, huh?" he teased, and I cringed.

"I've been getting a lot of nicknames since I joined Shinra, and I generally don't mind them, but I'm gonna have to draw the line there. I'm not being known as a Chocobo for the rest of my life," I announced, before folding my arms.

SOLDIER Merowian smirked lightly before taking my boots from under his arm and tossing them to me. "Go on, put those on. You won't be in a fit state to do so after I'm finished with you," he boasted in such a way it sounded more like _advice_, and I sighed, settling deliberately slowly to sit on the floor before starting to put on the boots. The teacher stared at me, looking rather confused, as I intentionally took my time.

I didn't have any time to doubt the hastily-made plan, nor by faith in my recently-met comrades; before I knew it, they had all silently pounced on the unsuspecting teacher, who let out a holler as he was tackled to the floor.

I removed the boot yet again, and pounced forward to join in the dog-pile, as I heard Ethan Rensky, the fourth member of our motley crew, let loose a victorious laugh.

A laugh that, sadly, was premature.

Our plan (thought up by Ethan, who I believed would make a very good strategist) was that in the tiny tunnels made from the boxes, we could form an under-box communication network. The wall was just on a corner, so we could see in advance which way the teacher would be approaching from.

Riley, the guns-enthusiast as he was, acted as the scout; standing on the top and completely covered by boxes, his job was to watch what direction he came from. With little time for us to establish a good way of silently communicating, Riley would stamp with his heavy Cadet boots onto either one of my hands, sticking up from between the boxes in front of his feet; stomp on my left if he was approaching from the left side, and right for right.

My job was, as half-expected, by _far_ the most dangerous and painful. After Riley stood on one of my hands - I mean, _signalled_, I ran off to the other two, Sammy and Ethan, and squished Sammy's appropriate foot, so they would know. As I did this, Riley would be digging down into the stack to hide from the quickly-approaching teacher, and running to join the two, as they waited for SOLDIER Merowian to climb up and over the barricade.

Then I, as the decoy, ran for the appropriate exit, and emerged around a nearby corner where SOLDIER Second Class Merowian would certainly not miss me. I would grab all of his attention, make sure he was enough into the hallway so he couldn't see far enough back to see what was going on behind him; where Riley, Sammy and Ethan would emerge from the boxes, as my backup, and tackle him to the floor, taking his Materia.

...Honestly, that last bit wasn't as solidly-planned as the rest of it, but on the face of it, the idea was epic - just make a huge dog-pile and the teacher would have to submit. We didn't anticipate just how good SOLDIER Merowian was with his Materia.

It seemed obvious, now, that a dog-pile of wildly-scrambling limbs, with no clear-cut plan at that point...was _not_ the way to succeed. The surprised teacher simply blasted us all off him with a fiery explosion, and before I knew it, we were all being pulled to our feet, having conceded as we had suffered at the hands of his Materia.

"Good show, Cadets, good show! Fantastic planning, you'd have made SOLDIER Winterhold proud!" As we all glowed with pride, though severely beaten down as we got to our feet, the SOLDIER didn't miss the opportunity to wear us down even more, by saying, "Too bad this isn't your 'Strategy' class, huh? Don't get confused, Cadets! You can't afford to, else us teachers get annoyed. Alright, unless you have any further backup hiding somewhere, Cobalt, it's time we went back to class! Some of those guys have been there for twenty minutes, at least, by now!"

...

"I know that look," Cliff teased with a grin and a laugh, as Zack and I sat down at his cafeteria table, our arms stuffed full with good, high energy food. Zack with a huge fry-up, and myself with arms full of ice-cream and chocolate...I wasn't feeling in an especially healthy mood. "You guys were with Merowian."

It wasn't even a question, it was so _apparently_ obvious. "Yeah we were," Zack confirmed, already with a mouthful of fried egg stuffed in. Runny yellow yolk spilled out the corners-

"Eugh! Seriously, Zack?" I cringed, repulsed, and Zack grinned a yolky smile at me before grabbing a napkin and cleaning himself up. I rolled my eyes, grabbed my favourite spoon, and cracked open a tub of delicious Biggs and Jessie's ice cream.

Cliff clicked his fingers a few awkward silent moments later. "I haven't seen you guys in ages, actually! So, how was the 'Survival Training' class? Not as bad as you were expecting, I'm sure," he enquired lightly, looking mostly at me. Zack snorted, nearly choking on the egg he _still_ hadn't swallowed.

I looked at the table, my face instantly heating up. "I threw up..." I admitted quietly, and looked back to see Cliff gain the most hilarious astonished expression I'd ever seen, and I laughed.

"You _threw up_?" he echoed in disbelief. "...You did have Sephiroth then. But _really_, Cobalt, I thought you'd have a stronger stomach than that. Was it my fault, for making you anticipate it so much?"

Zack practically threw himself into his raucous bout of laughter, and pounded on the table for a second, before quickly telling a tale to rectify Cliff's misunderstanding. "No, no, it wasn't your fault at all! Coby here simply got a bash on the noggin. He goes through quite a lot of that, it seems, but this time he couldn't take it. Heh, I thought he couldn't top that time we went to Angeal's office - remember, Coby?" he teased, tossing his head back as he gasped for air between laughs.

Cliff looked between us, clearly intrigued. I rested my cheek on my fist, elbow on the table, and languidly replied, sarcasm evident, "Vaguely. It was all a bit of a blur, when I think back on it." Zack playfully knocked the back of my helmet, and I nearly went nose-first into my Biggs and Jessie's.

"Ha! The Turk Reno launched Coby here straight into Angeal's office door! Knocked him straight out. You know you shouted out something about apologising to your brain cells before you completely lost consciousness?" he asked, and I blinked at him, surprised but not nearly so much as Cliff, sitting opposite us and taking in flies.

"Good grief..." I complained under my breath, and Zack tittered.

"It was funny, actually, but _anyway_..." Zack digressed, as I rolled my eyes, and Cliff seemed incapable of comprehending anything. "Sephiroth gave good old Coby here a bash on the top of his head, and Coby went _down_. Slammed down onto his hands and knees, _then_ he threw up, and then very nearly collapsed into the little puddle he had made," he explained, and I found myself cringing; I only really remembered leaving the classroom after throwing up a second time. "Lucky for you, Sephiroth seemed a little grossed out. He stepped back behind you as you hurled to avoid...well, splashes, and when he saw you about to faint, he pushed you to one side."

"Lucky for me," I echoed sarcastically, taking another spoonful, even as Ash arrived and stole one of my chocolate bars.

"Grossed out?" she repeated, and gave a short laugh. "If he was anything, he was disgusted. Repulsed." I thanked her pseudo-enthusiastically for her comments, and she punched my arm playfully. "Honestly though, I think you should be grateful for that. If he wasn't bothered much by the sick, he'd probably have just let you fall into it."

Cliff was twisting his head between us so quickly I was afraid of whiplash for him. "How come this is the first time I'm _hearing_ this? This is insane! Were you okay after, Cobe?"

I scratched the back of my neck, finding it difficult to remember. "It was just, like, an instant of pain, like a flash, but it was unnoticeable after that. I kinda blacked out for a while, then I started seeing double, and when I couldn't stand on my own, the General let me sit it out. It came back while I was resting, only as an ache, and I was really sweaty and dizzy. I threw up again as we left, and then one more time...I think...?"

I glanced at Ash, who nodded. "Yeah, I think that was it."

Cliff shook his head. "Man oh man. I need to eat with you guys more often!" he enthused, rubbing his hands together. "So, what other injuries were received? And don't try to-"

"Cliff!"

We all looked off to the right as a voice called for our speaking companion, who fell silent and looked over. He slowly grinned, and stood up to greet the new arrival; Angeal.

Zack and I traded somewhat concerned glances. You _never_ see First Class SOLDIERs in the cafeteria. This place was for Cadets, Third and Second Class SOLDIERs. It was a rare occasion, EXTREMELY rare, when Tseng, Rude and Reno came down, though that seemed to be simple routine (I say seemed; I'm a very sceptical person). They got their food delivered, or something, but I knew that First Classes had their own _floor_ where they could eat and relax, or they could have it ordered. For Angeal to be here...it could only mean bad for Zack, good for Zack, or bad for Zack and me.

Angeal glanced at Zack, Ash and me sitting innocently at the table as he and Cliff shook hands. "Angeal! I've just been hearing about the recent exploits of the usual crew," the brown-haired Second Class grinned in our direction, and Angeal slowly raised an eyebrow.

Before Angeal seemed to want to ask, Zack quickly rebuked, "It's nothing important. Just...stuff. You've probably already heard-move on."

"_Smooth_, Zack," I muttered, rolling my eyes as Zack smirked back at me.

Angeal raised an eyebrow slowly, and Cliff clarified for him, "They've been telling me how their classes have been going. Their first 'Survival Training' class, anyway." He sniggered, and Angeal made an enlightened sound, slowly turning to us.

"I never really heard what happened in that class. Sephiroth simply said he gave Blue a concussion, and that he had been 'unnecessarily rough' with him..." the SOLDIER Commander gave a very small grin. "On the other hand, I even got to _see_ what happened in the Turks' class. Tell me now, though, Cadets; what happened with SOLDIER Merowian?"

The dark-haired SOLDIER was quite obviously teasing, and Zack, Ash and myself shared a quick glance, before all at the same time claiming in a jumble of words that absolutely _nothing_ interesting occurred. Angeal snorted in disbelief, but didn't push it, turning to Cliff who had been chuckling since Angeal had referenced Kawi's video of the start of that class, and the instant viral success to all Shinra employees. "I take it you didn't come here simply to talk about the shenanigans of our favourite Cadets?" the Second Class enquired lightly, and I noticed him take a chocolate bar. _Another_ one stolen. I didn't buy them to give away, they're _mine_!

"Regretfully not." Suddenly Angeal looked troubled, his eyes diverting to the table, with a creased forehead, and I found myself quite concerned.

Angeal was, by no means, a quirky person. He was down to earth, he had his fair share of troubles I expected, but the Commander rarely seemed to be without a reassuring smile. He was the big, protective older brother of SOLDIERs and Cadets alike; He defends anyone and everyone because he hasn't a bad bone in his body. I knew from the day I met him, and we shared a pot of tea and simply chatted, that he was just a sweet and brilliant man.

Something bad _must_ be going on, something to make him worry. "Back to business, and I need to tell you something, Cliff. As you were, Cadets," Angeal briskly spoke, and with a small glimpse to us three, he swivelled on his feet and left, gesturing Cliff to follow.

The brown-haired SOLDIER didn't even look at us, simply followed after his friend and superior without question. I glanced at Zack, then Ash, feeling extremely worried.

Will finally arrived at that moment, much too late, setting his tray down with too loud a bang, and greeted us cheerfully. A second later, he really looked at us, and questioned, "What died?"

I glanced sharply at the Cadet, who held his hands up in innocence, still holding a fork. I got to my feet and made to follow, but a restraining hand on my arm stopped me. I looked back at Zack in irritation, but he didn't let go of his strong hold. "Cobalt, it's between them. If it's anything important that we should know, Angeal will tell us, or tell me to tell you guys. If you're caught listening as well, it won't look good."

I smirked faintly, kicking up my foot in his direction; only to show him my thin black socks, with no boots. "They won't catch me, SOLDIER Merowian was even properly listening for me and couldn't hear when I was _jogging_ in these. Plus, overhearing - it takes off the pressure if it _is_ about us and we can tell him that he doesn't have to tell us."

Zack continued to dispute, but before I could think of beginning an argument, I was shoved back into my seat beside Zack. I glanced behind me at the perpetrator, only to see Ash sprinting for the doors, the way Angeal and Cliff had left.

Zack and I traded glances, and hissed after her to return, but there was little we could do.

* * *

"What's the issue?" Cliff enquired, straight to business. His brown eyebrows were low over his shadowed eyes, and he shifted his footing to a more comfortable position standing outside the cafeteria.

Angeal stared at the floor, quite obviously thinking hard about many things. "To start, I thought I might tell you; Genesis, in the recent procedure by Hojo. _Again_ he didn't take it well."

Cliff heaved a laboured sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Hojo's gonna kill the poor guy. And he didn't say anything? No reasons for this?"

Angeal shook his head sadly as he replied, "It's hard to tell, with all the muttering Hojo does, but I think Hojo's as unknowing as any of us right now. What concerns me is what that means..."

"More tests..." Cliff grumbled. Close-by, eavesdropping on the conversation, Ash frowned, in puzzlement and unease.

"Of course, this _was_ a week ago," Angeal continued, "so he's much better. Blue would probably be wondering why Zack would be getting training all this past week and not him, so I've called Zack off for this week."

Cliff said nothing, simply nodded in agreement.

"However, I'm beginning to wonder if Genesis will actually be up to training him now. He always had to be somewhere all the time; on missions, writing reports, training sessions, and then always about trying to find anything to do with LOVELESS as soon as he hears it!" Angeal found himself laughing, despite the seriousness of the topic, and Cliff joined him.

"Was it true? I heard once that he took two months out a few years ago because he thought he'd heard of some new act of that poem cropping up somewhere in Wutai." Cliff remembered fondly on when he'd heard that by word of mouth in his hometown. Those gossips couldn't stop laughing by the ridiculousness of it all - one of Shinra's best temporarily deserting to find the tail end of a poem. "'Shows how kooky members of Shinra really are', I remember one of them saying, and I was planning to join up around that time, so I ripped them a new one and was on my way."

Angeal threw his head back, laughing in mirth at the Second Class' anecdote. "That is true, actually. I remember when he came back, all downtrodden, and for weeks we couldn't see him without a pen and paper, trying to come up with his own conclusion."

Cliff nodded, grinning, quite amused. "Anyway; so you're saying that Genesis may not be able to train Coby? It is truly because he has no time, or is he getting too stressed or worn out from these treatments that he's just about able to cope as it is?"

Angeal folded his arms, glaring at the wall slightly. "I'm not saying that Genesis is incapable, of course not. He's managed until now, and he's stubborn enough to continue to do so... I just think it's not really..._in his best interest_, to take on this little experiment of ours.

"I've been thinking that, since Will is going to be interviewed for training from one of the Turks soon instead of being trained by Sephiroth, we should have Sephiroth continue Blue's training, and allow Genesis to continue with work of his own," Angeal pondered, his arms folded.

Cliff raised an eyebrow. "And you think Genesis is going to go along with that? You said yourself, he's stubborn. Since he's started training Coby, do you think he's going to stop and let _Sephiroth_ take over for him?" It was common knowledge that Genesis was very competitive all the time with the General, and though they were friends (to a degree) and Sephiroth was fully accepting of Genesis, the redhead could be quick to dispute with Sephiroth.

Angeal grimaced slightly. "Valid point. But I'm hoping this is the one time Genesis will be reasonable...or I'll just not mention him, and hope Genesis simply forgets." Cliff smirked slightly at the Commander's response.

Ash was wide-eyed in shock as she heard this conversation. _I really should not be here...but is Sephiroth going to start training Coby? I can't pass this up now, this is insane!_

So the Cadet remained, and continued to listen as Angeal and Cliff discussed other confidential matters. "I have some other, more volatile news as well, I'm afraid," Angeal admitted, and Cliff visibly cringed.

"More volatile than Genesis and his competitiveness with the General? Do me a favour, kill me now," he joked, even though there was meaning behind it. Angeal chuckled appreciatively.

"Sadly, yes. I have heard some news through the grapevine-"

"-Through the Director?" Cliff interrupted, unable to keep the grin off his face. Angeal let a grin show, but wrestled his face back to a serious expression an instant later.

"...Yes. I have heard - from the Director - that the Turks have been showing some unnatural interest in the Cadets this year," he submitted in a sarcastic way, though the topic couldn't have been more serious.

Behind the door and around the corner, Ash nibbled on her fingernails. She continued to listen, self-conscious of the sounds she was making, and tried to keep herself quiet as Cliff replied, "That is...interesting news. I almost regret saying this, but anyone in particular?"

Angeal gave Cliff a sarcastic look that Ash didn't see, but she understood quite quickly as Cliff responded sarcastically.

"Of course, how did I ever think otherwise? Is it good interest, or..._bad_ interest?"

Angeal scratched the dark layer of stubble on his chin. "Lazard didn't really know, but apparently they cornered Blue and Zack in the cafeteria about a week ago and started asking Blue questions."

"A _week_ ago?" Cliff echoed in disbelief. "That was just a few days after they arrived, wasn't it?"

"About a week after," Angeal corrected. "...But that doesn't make it sound a whole lot better anyway, does it?"

Cliff decided that he couldn't figure out a way to respond to that. After a few moments he replied, "I did see that video, Zack and Coby being tackled by Reno and Rude. But I never really thought that there might've been something more behind it..." the brown-haired Second Class trailed off thoughtfully, wondering what Coby might've done to warrant this 'interest' from the Turks.

Angeal shrugged in response. "Tseng didn't really want to speak to Zack or the other two, just to Blue. Asking a lot of personal questions that seemed to make him uncomfortable, about his history. Where he came from, what his family were like... Blue seemed to make a bid for freedom as quickly as possible and left the cafeteria, and Tseng was visibly quite annoyed by it."

Cliff raised a curious eyebrow. "Where _does_ Coby come from anyway? You met his sister, didn't you?"

Angeal didn't really like how that information seemed to spread, but if Blue knew about it, at least he didn't seem to mind it. "Yes, she said she lived in her apartment in Mideel with her twin and parents. Blue apparently said that their parents trained him and his sister for five years before he left-"

"Him _and_ his sister?" Cliff repeated, mystified. "I always thought it was just him - that's something the Turks found out, I presume?"

Angeal nodded to confirm his thought. "That's what I hear. I just wanted to give you a heads up - if you see anything..." Angeal sent Cliff a meaningful look, and the other SOLDIER nodded seriously.

"I tell you or Director Lazard straight away, of course," he answered, with slight sarcasm, and Angeal nodded in approval before spinning and walking away.

Ash was frozen, completely stupefied by Angeal's words, but forced herself to return to the table. Albeit _slowly_; she needed time to think this through.

* * *

...Seriously. Have you looked it up yet? Do it now. Moonwalking pony. Do it. DO IT!

Responses to my wonderful reviewers!

AnonyMouse: Heh heh, Verne's awesome. So is Reno! Uh...yo. :D

Yeah, if there's anything Tseng hates more than Reno, it would have to be homework. So obviously, he's happiest when he combines the two in an easy way to get rid of both! There's a reason he's head-honcho. ;)

You like her! Ah, I had so much fun writing in Ciara. In many ways, she reminds me far too much of myself. Here's hoping she shows up again at some point.

That's what I'm here for-to make people laugh and smile! If there were more people like you in the world, I mightn't feel quite so miserable after hearing the news. Not that I listen that often...but maybe I would, if there were happier people! Thank you SO much for another brilliant review, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the last!

Wolffox101: Welcome to the story! Happy to hear from you, and I'm delighted you're enjoying it! Thank you!


	10. Anticipation for the Future

Oohhh wowohwowohwowohwowohwowohwow ohwow...Hee hee!

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

I...saw...Advent Children! Hee hee! It was a bit weird. I'd just felt like I should watch _something_ of this game I'm writing about, and when I woke up at the oddly early time of 8-ish on Saturday, I just watched it.

Oohhh wow. I did _not_ realise how awesome Sephiroth truly is. Seriously! XD

Other than that, I have been watching a _lot_ of movies lately. Just ones on TV. RED on network premier-John Malkovich was just hilarious, I love that guy! A couple of Lara Croft movies, that one that's always on with the triangle, and another one with the _Phantom of the Opera_. Cree-py.

Oh! And the Shawshank Redemption! _That_ was a good movie! Reminded me far too much of Prison Break though, only without the sad ending. Dramatic, depressing scenes + beautifully sad music - main character = T-T

...Nearly. Hugh Jackman still holds the title of 'Only Actor to Make Me Cry' I'm afraid. Sorry, Mr Miller. Doesn't make you any less awesome.

Oh, and guess what? Without request, I have given you another chapter of 'Sapphire's Shinra Shenanigans'! Now you've read Chapter 9, go on ahead and read **Chapter 2** of that! I hope you like it-I drew a picture for it, and all! :D

* * *

10 - Anticipation for the Future

I looked up in interest as Ash returned at too slow a pace. "Ash!" I greeted with a grin, and when she sat back down in her seat, Zack, Will (we had filled him in as Ash was eavesdropping) and I stared at her in interest. "What did they talk about? Anything interesting?"

The dark-brown-haired Cadet slowly slid into her seat with an oddly vacant expression, which could've meant _anything_. We all stared at her meaningfully, willing her to tell us about what Angeal and Cliff had said. "Well?" Zack pressed her a second later.

Her head jerked up to look at us, with the same creepy empty expression. "You two, you and Coby, you haven't had sessions with Angeal or Genesis in ages, right?" she enquired, seemingly out of the blue. Zack and I traded glances.

"I haven't had one since that first one a week ago, the day of our first 'Situation and Reaction Training' class," I stated, and Zack nodded. "Oh, so it's not weird, then! I thought it was a long time since my lesson, but if you haven't had one, then I guess it's normal!" I enthused, laughing slightly in relief. Honestly, I was beginning to get a little worried. I turned to look at Ash, and enquired, "So, you're saying Angeal was talking about our training? Will we be getting another lesson today then?"

Ash looked oddly downtrodden, and was quick to shake her head. "No, I don't think so. From what Angeal said, Genesis went through some sort of test with Professor Hojo a week ago, and it didn't go well, apparently. That's why you haven't had any lessons," she clarified, and my eyes expanded to the size of blitzballs.

I opened my mouth to say something, but forgot it as a thought flashed through my head. I clicked my fingers in a 'eureka!' moment and voiced my thoughts, "He looked so grouchy that day, that must've been it! That must've been the day he asked me...to..."

I trailed off awkwardly, and looked down in speculation and embarrassment. Ash, Will and Zack all looked at me, expecting me to continue my explanation.

"...never mind."

Eyebrows were raised, but to my surprise and instant joy, the three Cadets dropped it. Ash continued her reciting of what she had heard, "...Yes. Well, Angeal said that Genesis is about fine now, but that he was considering trying to coerce Genesis into dropping you as a student."

"Uh, what?" I interrupted what she was saying, shocked. "So, what, I get an awful five-hour lesson with the guy and he can't teach me anymore? Well _that's_ a little sad!" I exclaimed, shoulders slumping.

Ash smiled slightly. "In that case, I have some good news! Angeal was saying he'd try to convince Sephiroth to take over if Genesis agreed!"

After a few moments of silence, and Will and Zack grimacing on my behalf as they examined my expression closely, I quietly asked, "Any other news?"

A surprisingly long few seconds later - Ash seemed to be thinking back to what was said - she answered, "Not really, no."

I nodded in acceptance, and another few seconds later, I leapt to my feet, screamed, and ran out of the cafeteria, my thin black socks making me skid all over the place.

"Ge-ne-SIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSS!"

...

The redhead SOLDIER jerked upright and took long, swift strides towards my position once he saw me on my knees in the middle of the corridor. "Kiddie, what in the name of the Goddess are you doing on the floor, crying hysterically like this?" he demanded to know, his leather-coated arms folded in front of him and _clearly_ not going to offer me a hand up.

I pouted. "You have no right to call me that! Not anymore! Not you, Sir!" I was able to call him by his first name, because no one was about, but I had practised in the bathroom mirror (as weird as that sounds) and it just felt so weird I decided that I'd risk a 'bad student/teacher relationship' in preference to keeping even the slightest bit of normalcy.

Genesis' face screwed up in confusion. "Get a grip, Amell. What on Gaia is your problem, so you can stop acting this way?" he asked harshly, and I looked up at him from my knees on the floor in front of him, intending to look as pleading and as cute and puppy-dog-ish as I could.

I pondered what I would say to the intimidating, clearly peeved First Class SOLDIER, and eventually I buried my face in my hands, just to hide from his scary glare as much as possible. After a few moments, I settled for the classic, "Don't die!"

I glanced up between my fingers at Genesis, who was clearly unimpressed. "Thank you for caring, Cobalt. However, I would like to know what's brought this on," he answered sarcastically, shifting his weight and swaying to one side, the ends of his red coat swaying elegantly with him.

"Angeal said that day of the...thing, that you were ill! I didn't even realise - you're okay, right? You'll take me for another lesson, right?" I cleared my voice when I paused, realising I was far too squeaky at the moment, and basically stumbled my way through the rest of the sentence like it was a swamp.

Genesis' brow was furrowed. "Angeal told you this?" he questioned seriously, and not noticing the murderous look in his crystalline blue eyes, I nodded.

"Yup, Ash told me. And something about re..." I trailed off as I finally noticed my beloved tutor's hands quickly closing into fists, and the man literally beginning to _tremble_ in badly-capped rage. Suddenly, _replacing_ didn't seem like the appropriate word, and I stuttered for a while before eventually admitting, "It's not important..."

Genesis distantly nodded, and after a moment, swiftly turned his head to look at me. It was astonishing how intense he was from his out-of-it look a second ago, so much so I fell back from him, and let out a bit of a squeak as my back and head collided with the floor. The redhead deliberately stepped back a little farther from me, and I rolled my eyes, knowing he just didn't want to help me up, before getting up myself and brushing myself off. To my surprise the redhead began to walk, and it took me a second to hastily follow.

"Uh, where are you going?" I asked pointlessly, and then pleaded as I nearly tripped over my feet, "Slow d-"

"I'm going to share words with Angeal, in a civilised and responsible manner," Genesis interrupted me in a deadly calm voice, his brow firmly furrowed and glaring at the air in front of him as he stepped increasingly quickly through it, his coat billowing out behind him. "And then I am going to invite him to a friendly spar in forty-nine and hope that he's actually _willing_ to use that Buster Sword of his, because he's going to need it if he has any intention of keeping his head."

I 'meep'ed quietly. "Uh, I'm not really sure if that's-"

I cut myself off that time as Genesis abruptly stopped, grabbing my shoulder and making me return his terrifyingly intense stare. I tried looking away so hard I think my eye started twitching, and I _still_ couldn't.

Nothing was said, and all was as silent as a graveyard as he stared straight at me. There was such a complete silence that my thick swallow could've been heard from miles around. My nostrils flared as I breathed rapidly, and I clenched my fists by my side to stop them shaking. Alternatively, Genesis was so extremely still, I wouldn't believe he was actually a person if his eyes didn't occasionally shift between my own two eyes.

His next statement was said with such delicate softness; I didn't think I could've been more frightened unless it was _quieter_, as he asked me, "I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer honestly, so listen hard, Amell. Angeal and I have been close friends for a very long time, I couldn't know him any better than I do now. You or your friend or whomever, heard Angeal saying that I was ill, and perhaps incapable of teaching a Cadet. Now, despite said Cadet's lack of general ability, and intelligence..."

As Genesis took a tiny pause, I decided to rebuke that statement by saying something interesting, so I said, "You know that LOVELESS uses the word 'my' seven times?" I figured using a LOVELESS fact was the best way to go; after all, this was Genesis.

A double-take was my response, and Genesis stared at me in disbelief, straightening up properly to stare down at me now. "Really?" he enquired, his voice considerably lighter, and noticeably sarcastic.

I nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! Interesting, huh?" I said gleefully, grinning now as Genesis chuckled slightly.

"I'm not surprised by your fact. I knew that, I have read LOVELESS before, if you didn't know," he pointed out, folding his arms. "I was confused because I didn't realise that you read LOVELESS yourself. _When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, The Goddess descends from the sky_..."

Genesis looked at me meaningfully, and I grimaced before holding my hands up in defeat. "I don't know the poem...not _yet_, at least," I told him honestly, and while he seemed somewhat disappointed, he inclined his head in acceptance.

"You can be sure that by the time I am finished with you, you will have discovered the joy and inspiration that comes from LOVELESS," he assured with a smile, a smile that made my stomach disappear for a second, until Genesis rubbed his gloved hands together. "I will make a Cadet worth his salt out of you yet, Cobalt Amell! If Angeal believes I am not up to training you, we shall have to prove him wrong, do you agree?"

I couldn't stop the goofy grin from spreading all over my face as I hollered, "You bet, of course I do!"

"Well then!" Genesis motivated, and continued on in his walk. "To the training room! It's time to see just what you're made of, Cadet!"

...

A giggle greeted me as I staggered into our shared Cadet apartment, collapsing onto the lumpy but currently _extremely_ comfortable couch before groaning an illegible complaint and shoving off all the random junk thrown haphazardly and lazily onto it - and I'm not saying anything, not pointing any fingers, but a considerable amount of that yet-to-be-cleaned clothing and cutlery belonged to a certain dark-haired puppy-dog who was fortunate enough to get a partially messed-up clinophobe for a roommate. (Clinophobia is a fear of going to bed, by the way...and I don't have it, but I might as well use what little pointless knowledge I have, yes?)

"So, am I to take it that Genesis wasn't in as much bother as Angeal made him out to be?" Ash teased, munching on crisps from a cylindrical container, watching me like I was the most intense movie she'd seen in a while.

I sighed heavily and with relief, lying back on the sofa for a second before sitting up to carefully cradle my right knee. "...Yeah, that sounds about right," I answered, clearing my throat as my voice was inadvertently small and feeble, and rested my head on my other propped-up knee.

With a moment's pause, she shook her head. "You and Zack just are the drama magnets of Shinra, aren't you?" she commented, her voice just a tad sarcastic. "Lay it on me then, Coby. Tell me the tale of the most painful and ill-deserved injury ever received."

And as she picked up a magazine next to her and uninterestedly began to flick through it slightly, the worst possible thought came into my head; of Ciara and her advice, that is to say, that I should tell Ash as soon as there was an opportunity.

_This_ was an opportunity. I could've just come out with it, just told her, and explained the situation and why I had to continue with the facade. It would've been easy enough, just to say so.

Naturally, I ignored the smart girl's advice and launched right, head-first into the story; of the innocent, handsome and most talented SOLDIER-wannabe, whilst beset upon by a red-coated creature that constantly recited poetry and, while the Cadet being five-times his better at all important matters, Genesis was being a cheaty and unfair...enemy.

I explained to her, with wild and vague hand gestures that, as I rescued a train full of youngsters wanting to see the sights of Midgar, and defended them from the evil Genesis, the cheeky rapscallion had sneaked around me while I was unaware and I had accidentally twisted my right calf and foot to an angle attached at the knee that was, I believed, impossible before today in turning to face him.

It certainly wasn't known to all previous medical history, anyway. Or so I liked to think. The few medics who showed up a short while later sprayed it with stuff, simply snapped it back into place (ignoring my howling at this point, obviously) gave me an icepack to hold to it, gave me painkillers, and instructed me as to what I had to do until the thing healed.

Then, and only then, four hours into Genesis' training, was I allowed to have a break. I figured he was kidding when he said 'break', or that he meant longer than usual class break times of about ten minutes. More like, I don't know, a few weeks? A month? A lifetime would be nice.

_Why did I complain about losing Genesis? Why couldn't I plead with him to LET ME GO? He doesn't even like me!_

Ash did not look in the least bit sympathetic, her irritatingly-smug grin plastered over her face as she shrugged. "At least Commander Rhapsodos doesn't treat you as _just_ a Cadet," she encouraged, actually sounding serious as she consoled me. "With him willing to fight you at these levels, sure it's going to hurt, but you'll become an awful lot more resilient. And it means that he's treating you properly, like a student rather than a lucky Cadet, like how he treats you all the time you _aren't_ training together."

She sniggered as I glared at her. "Yeah, laugh it up, Ash. But just think, in a few years time, you could be looking to advance into Second Class, and I, with training and recommendation from a First Class under my belt, will simply have _shot up_ the ranks. Think about _that_," I teased, and if possible, the girl laughed even more.

"Maybe so. But for now, I'm just content to bask in your misery, for the foreseeable future. Enjoy the rest of your life, Coby, because the instant you get out of training with the most self-obsessed and _annoying_ teacher ever known to Gaia, you'll be neck-deep in First Class SOLDIER paperwork and responsibilities.

"Meanwhile, the rest of us '_mortals_' will be able to enjoy ourselves a little drink down at the local bar and enjoy our lives," she mocked me, and I glared at her with a pout.

"...Well, you don't need to make me jealous like that," I whined, earning a laugh from the dark-haired Cadet. "I have enough to lament over without thinking about what _you_ guys will be spending your spare time doing."

I shifted on the sofa, and cringed, letting out a pent-up breath as my knee sent new startling shoots of pain through my entire leg. Ash seemed not to notice as she continued the conversation, "Well, to be honest, when I say drink, I was thinking more of...you know, lemonade, OJ, that sort of stuff. Not alcohol - you're only fifteen anyway, aren't you?"

I stared at her in confusion. "What on Gaia is '_OJ_'?" I questioned, pulling a face I could tell without looking in a mirror was weird.

She returned the look, only looking more astonished than questioning. "Orange juice! _Seriously_, Coby? You're messed up, dude!"

I leaned my head back on the sofa with a lazy grin as I replied, "You think I didn't know that? I thought you guys heard I slept on my head!" Ash pouted and slowly nodded in acceptance while I grinned.

An expression that quickly dropped, however - my quickly swelling knee did not approve as I tried to change to a more comfortable position, and throbbed twice as painfully as before, causing a groan. "Uh, Coby...you alright?"

"Yup," I quickly answered, placing a hand over my eyes as I sunk further into the sofa, my chest rumbling all the way as my knee finally grew to a consistent agony, instead of terrible shoots of massive pain.

"Alright, sure, I believe you," Ash said in complete seriousness, and I removed my hand and watched as she got to her feet, armed with her PHS. I raised an eyebrow and gestured to it with an enquiring expression, and she looked at me, deadpan.

And instead of covering up with a more-than-lame excuse like I had expected, she simply told me the truth in a monotone.

"I'm calling the infirmary, Cobalt. If you can't get up to take the PHS from me in ten seconds, I will proceed with the call." And with that, the Cadet started counting down teasingly, a hand on her hip and the PHS held near her ear.

I glared at her from my lying position on the sofa, and despite my competitiveness and total disregard for my own well-being, I knew with the way I was in, there wasn't any way I was getting that communicating gadget from my fit-and-healthy companion.

When she reached zero, she tutted while shaking her head. "Oh Coby, I expected better from you, I really did! At the very least, I was expecting a bit of a show," she teased sarcastically, before beginning to flick through what was being displayed on the gadget.

I folded my arms and scowled, irritated by this turn of events, but I was calm. I would not confront the girl while she clearly had an unfair advantage. _I'll wait 'til she's sleeping_.

That thought calmed me down somewhat, and I was able to contentedly wait as Ash called the infirmary on my behalf, and after a short conversation, sat down with me to wait for the medics to arrive, hopefully only with a few bandages, pills and lollipops.

They arrived quite quickly, and even though I knew there were more waiting out in the hallway, only three of the Shinra employees with white coats entered, and with only one of them, the youngest guy, deciding to greet us, the other two got to work instantly.

And throughout the whole process, I decided I liked the other two better, as that one guy jabbered on and on at me, all sorts of meaningless, digging questions that made me slightly self-conscious.

"So, Coby - I'm gonna call you Coby - how did you get this knee injury?"

"...I was training."

"Oh, training? Was this with Ash here? Who was training you? How many were there?"

"Uh...yes, no, Commander Rhapsodos, and...just me."

"_Really_? Well, that's pretty cool! Why was he training you? Not to be rude or anything, but I thought he had too much stuff to do without training a Cadet such as yourself."

"I wouldn't know. They decided to train a couple of us, him and Commander Hewley and the General."

"Oh, _right_, I heard about that. I didn't know who was getting the training, though. I'll have to remember your face and commit it to memory, Cobalt! You know, just in case you happen to get another injury while in training."

"...Yeah."

Ash was sniggering in the background, her hand over her mouth as this went down - but I was surprised, actually, that whatever tactic the guy was trying to pull, it seemed to work. I glanced down at my knee, and saw that the whole joint was wrapped in bandages over my Cadet uniform, an inch or more extra on top and bottom.

One of the other medics looked up at me from where he was stooped over my leg. "Sorry to say, Amell, that your knee bone has been chipped. It should heal itself over time, but I think it would be in your best interest if you were to stay in the infirmary, just until tomorrow, and we'll see how you are then."

I preferred this guy, if I was honest, and I nodded. "Do I get to limp myself down to the infirmary now, then? You wouldn't happen to have a crutch or something? Or maybe I could just get a piggyback from Chatty here," I joked, pointing to the surprised and quite happy man crouched next to me as I threw a friendly arm around his shoulders.

"My name's Gray, actually," he corrected me with a grin, and I chuckled.

The other medic, who suddenly seemed worse and a pile more boring, replied without acknowledging Gray, "All of those are against company policy, I'm afraid. We'll transport you down."

I raised an eyebrow, knowing I wouldn't like the transportation even as I heard him say it, and looked to the doorway - and cringed - as a bed on wheels with bars and restraints either side was wheeled in by two other medics.

My eyes were wide as I said slowly, "Is that really necessary? I don't think Ash would mind piggybacking me down there, and she and Gray could share, I bet!"

It made little difference, and as the two relatively-young spectators watched with amusement and laughed, I was elevated onto the wheelie bed, and mused on how out-of-place one person could feel as I was surrounded by about five medics in doctor's coats, all pulling me as I lay on my back, now with only the slightest traces of pain as I was wheeled to the elevator.

_I don't like beds._

Something told me I wouldn't be getting a very comfortable sleep tonight.

* * *

"Getting to that time of the year again, isn't it, Angeal?"

The dark-haired SOLDIER Commander's eyes were alight with excitement and enthusiasm as he looked to his childhood friend, who by comparison looked extremely miserable. "It's tomorrow, Genesis. The day every Cadet, SOLDIER and Turk looks forward to equally as much...except for my two closest friends."

Angeal sent an intentionally unimpressed and sarcastic look to his red-coated companion, who smirked and made a show of turning the page of his beloved poetry book, demonstrating his disinterest in the topic of discussion. The third member of their usual group during these talks, General Sephiroth, was sitting at his desk which today (while usually tidy) was littered with sheets of paperwork in the process of being filled out.

Angeal sent a cautious look to the youngest and most powerful of the triad. He - apparently unlike Genesis - was consciously aware that this topic was a somewhat sensitive issue with the silver-topped General, and didn't want to be thoughtless towards the man in his excitement for the day.

It seemed that today Sephiroth was either too busy or simply very uninterested, as the man did not look up from where he was hunched over his table, pen furiously scribbling the man's signature on an unfairly-large stack of papers.

So, the dark-haired SOLDIER grinned at the redhead, saying nothing. Eventually, Genesis rested his book in his lap, and examined Angeal's expression with a playfully curious look, eyes slightly narrowed and mouth curled up at the corners.

"Just what are you thinking of now, Angeal?" the flamboyant SOLDIER enquired, as he crossed one leg over the other on Sephiroth's comfortable sofa. Angeal gave the smallest chuckle, and took a seat opposite Genesis.

"I'm just wondering how our newest little friends will react to tomorrow. They haven't been here long, it won't seem like that big of a deal, but by this time in three months..."

An eyebrow cocked at Angeal's musings. "What, you're saying they won't _already_ have run home to their parents by then?" he mocked, and at Angeal's glare, Genesis tossed his hair back in a smooth motion. "Why are you pondering this, anyway? I hope you're not still interested in Sapphire...Angeal, if you steal my student's letters, a lot of people are going to get angry or broken shortly after, so it's not advisable."

Angeal shook his head in pseudo-frustration, though Genesis could see his small grin and gave a little smile himself. "I'm not going to steal your Cadet's letters from home, Genesis. I assure you."

Genesis' eyes were quick to narrow. "He's not _my_ Cadet, Angeal. He is my _student_, not _my_ Cadet."

Angeal ignored his partially-angered friend and zoned out, looking at the newest flowers from Sephiroth's fan club sticking out of the bin.

Yes, tomorrow was letter day. As usual, a lot of the SOLDIER floor was buzzing and excitable to hear from their families for the first time in the last three months. These four days of the year were some of the most looked-forward-to in the Shinra Calendar, because even despite all the advancements Shinra had made in technology allowing people to get in touch in moments over communicating gadgets, many people on Gaia still believed that there was no greater a way to hear from loved ones than to receive from them a personal and heartfelt letter.

As he always was, Angeal was thrilled for the day. Though he was by no means simple, he held extremely high value for everyone getting word from home by letter, and always enjoyed hearing from his own parents back in Banora.

As expected, this particular day was especially sensitive to Sephiroth; as a day focused on family and loved ones, the General mostly locked himself away in his office the entire day and never left, except to sleep. Of course, he would listen if Angeal told him of what he had heard, but the dark-haired Commander himself knew that behind his politeness and submissiveness, Sephiroth wished he had a similar link to some kind of family.

Which was another topic on which Genesis fell out with Sephiroth; the sometimes childish Commander held a fairly obvious disdain for the day. Having foster parents who he was convinced did not care for him, Genesis saw little point and no meaning behind receiving the letters; though Angeal could tell that his close friend lashed out mostly because of his own troubles, not his own opinions on the day.

With Genesis showing this scorn of the day, and Sephiroth's submissiveness and wistfulness, every three months the two SOLDIERs were likely to end up in the training room, thinking up and experimenting with different ways to kill the other as insults were tossed between them.

Angeal had never picked sides when the day came to blows, and he was certain that this was a part of the day that would not change. The Commander, for a large portion of the day, found himself constantly having to placate the two...or judging who was better in their sparring.

The dark-haired Commander knew and understood both his friends' arguments toward each other, but if pressed, he would have to admit that Sephiroth had better grounds for his anger. Sephiroth wouldn't get into the infamous 'Argument of Letter Day' if Genesis were not so vocal or biased in his views of the day, because Genesis was somewhat unfounded; because of his fiery temper, he would argue and complain about the day because many people, excluding him, were content and happy with their situations at home.

Angeal wouldn't ever think of telling the two what he thought of their disputes; his calming, elder-brother attitude was what kept Sephiroth and Genesis as friends. And though the term _friends_ was used somewhat loosely, it was much better than them being bitter rivals, Genesis being jealous of the attention Sephiroth received and the General all-too happy to accept the Commander's challenge.

Angeal was glad that the two were capable of getting along, even if only slightly. The three had turned into something of a dysfunctional family of brothers; Angeal was the oldest who kept the peace, Sephiroth in the middle, who constantly fought with the youngest as Genesis tried to find his place.

The analogy made him smile, and he thought of the other family members who kept getting added to the Shinra SOLDIER family. Director Lazard alternated between being serious and being friendly, the uncle to the three.

The Turks were like another family of their own, sometimes invited over to share special occasions and enjoy each other's company, but SOLDIER and the Turks were always in competition over who was better.

President Shinra was something of a grouchy old father or grandpa to the family, always issuing what was right or wrong, what everyone should be doing.

Professor Hojo was that old, creepy man down the street who had no friends, stayed in his house all day, and while the adults pretended to like him and told the kids off for being rude, everyone secretly sort-of wished he'd die.

All the new Cadets, and most of the Third and Second Classes in SOLDIER were tons of little first and second cousins you never knew existed until you saw them for the first time at an event, who you could make friends with and really get to know more than you ever expected, or you may never see again.

Cliff Luxor, the Second Class who took the Cadets for 'Fitness and Teamwork' classes, was the guy who lived on the same street. He was the guy who found the time to be everywhere at once, and made friends with everyone.

Wallace Everton, the man who took the 'Introduction to Weaponry' class, was the cool, crazy uncle that everyone liked but was the slightest bit unsure of.

Sirus Winterhold, the First Class SOLDIER who taught 'Strategy and Tactics' was the other grandfather who picked up on absolutely everything, but was always old-fashioned and set in his ways.

Edward Merowian, the zany Second Class who taught the Cadets 'Materia Training' in his spare time, was the ridiculous older cousin who never stopped moving and repeatedly got himself into difficult scrapes and situations.

And alternatively, of course, there was Zack and Coby, (partially thanks to an especially weird dream he had a few nights ago) they were two little puppies who constantly yelped, got themselves into trouble, made a mess every day of the week, and just made everyone smile as they tried to make friends with anything they could find.

"Uh...Angeal?"

The SOLDIER in question snapped out of his amused thoughts to look at his childhood friend, who was staring at him in a confused and faintly mocking way. Angeal brushed off his surprise, and raised an eyebrow at the red-coated Commander. "Yes, Genesis?"

There was a long pause, as Genesis' expression did not change, until he let out a breath and shook his head. "I don't think I actually want to know what you were thinking. Probably about some sort of _extremely_ interesting news you'll hear from back in Banora." Genesis snorted as he spoke with a mocking voice smothered in sarcasm, making Angeal somewhat peeved as his friend ruined the sentiment behind the important and heartfelt day, knowing both that it would not be for the first time, and that he would not be the only one affected.

Angeal decided to say nothing on the matter. It was Genesis' prerogative what he thought of the day. But as the _elder brother_ of this little family he had imagined in his head, he knew he would intervene if Genesis said something tomorrow to ruin another member's day.

Whether it was one of the many little cousins they had, a family friend who lived on the same street, or one Puppy in particular that Angeal felt could be getting some shtick from Genesis tomorrow, he would stop Genesis from ruining their day.

That's what big brothers did.

* * *

Heh, not my big brothers. Mine ruin my day. Thank you reviewers, for being the ones to stop my big brothers ruining my day!

AnonyMouse: You like Merowian? Well, good news, my friend! You'll like the next chapter! :D

Hmm...ordinarily, I wouldn't have thought to use the term 'plotting'...but I see your point. But hey, Sapphire's just one of those little people who manage to worm their way into everyone's lives! The fact that she's just a little Cadet attracting all this attention, and with Angeal being such a nice guy...well, he just seems the type to go to extreme lengths to make sure one innocent little person is kept safe. Lucky for Sapphire, he chose the person who probably needs protecting the most.

Holes in the conversation? Perhaps that was intentional. Perhaps you are sleep deprived. Far more likely, however, is that _I_ am. I wanted to get this chapter up. You do _not_ want to know what time it is. School tomorrow, too! *rubs eyes*

Bahahaha! Suspense, I know! You saw the Adventure/Humor genres, you _never_ thought I'd put you through _this_ sort of intense, cliff-hainging drama! Scaaa-_ree_! XD

And hey, if you think your reviews are repetitive, keep 'em coming! After all, with the amount of ego-boosting you've done for me, you think I'm offended if you think you keep doing it? Hee hee, I'm the kind of pikachu who loves some of that verbal pampering. Thank you once again for such lovely feedback! :D

grandshadowseal: Welcome to the story! Thanks a bunch for that, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! ;)


	11. The Argument of Letter Day -Part I

You guys enjoy the break over Easter? I didn't. I had a haystack of a lot of homework over the holidays. ;)

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

But, I did get an Easter egg. First time in years-how sad is that? These past couple years, all I get are a couple of Cream eggs...and one I got for myself! How pathetic, right?

Still, once again, I've been watching the movies. Watched this one with Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson and Kim from Scrubs, but I couldn't tell you what it was called. It would've been great, had I not missed the last fifteen minutes!

And, yet again, it was another movie that reminded me of Prison Break. Is that show the font of all great movies, or did I just like it far too much?

Anyway, everyone; you are welcome. I'm hitting you with a two-part chapter! Because Shinra's Letter Day is just that important, apparently, to deserve something twice as long. Annnd...to my fellow Doctor Who fanatics, I issue a challenge!

Somewhere in this two-parter I have tucked in nicely a direct quote from Doctor Who. For the first person who spots it, I shall have to think up a suitable reward for aforementioned Whovian. Happy searching!

And so you don't forget about the little challenge by the second part, I'll put it up as quickly as I can. Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up! Lots'a work, I'm sure you understand.

Oh, and as I told one of my beloved reviewers, more of this guy!

* * *

11 - The Argument of Letter Day; Part I

"SOLDIER Merowian?" I stared with wide eyes at the 'Materia Training' teacher, the young, kooky Second Class SOLDIER, who returned my stare with a similarly confused look as the doctors clicked my bed into place and swiftly departed.

The man's arm was in a sling, and he wore a considerably more casual outfit than I had last seen him in; a pair of bright green, flashy shorts that went to his knee (showing off curiously hairless legs) and a zipped up waistcoat over a white t-shirt.

Meanwhile, I was feeling considerably out of place, still in my Cadet uniform, and still quite uncomfortable. The Cadet uniform wasn't actually all that bad, though, compared to the SOLDIER uniforms with all those _belts_...because we didn't go out for missions, but still had to look identifiable around HQ, we had to wear teal-y grey turtlenecks over white shirts, dark blue trousers, a dark red-brown belt and sturdy but comfortable white shoes as I had on, though sometimes we were given boots to wear instead.

As well as that, I had my helmet as firmly jammed on my head as always, same dark blue as the trousers, and the inches of thick white bandage over my right knee. Merowian's intelligent, bright eyes quickly darted over my appearance, before staring at me, made smaller by his grin. "Why, if it isn't Chocobo-fast Cobalt!" he greeted in delight, and I cringed as soon as I realised that the nickname was sticking.

I looked over at the SOLDIER whose grin never wavered, and I heaved a small sigh. "Hello, sir. Uh...can I ask, what happened to your arm?" I enquired. While knowing the man was fun, I didn't really know how he was about proper conduct. The last thing I wanted was to get in trouble, and make myself more of a bull's-eye for the Materia prodigy.

He gave a small smirk, and I figured that the man, like what was turning into a surprising amount of higher-ups in Shinra, cared little for formalities. "Well, in my first Cadet class one student got a little over-excited, and I got myself a souvenir in the form of a Cadet using a Fire Materia on my arm." Merowian raised his arm to draw attention to it, and I sucked in a breath in sympathy. "Also, you know, there was a fairly rowdy group of Cadets not too long ago who thought it would be a great idea to jump on their teacher and thrash about wildly...these Cadets these days, where do they get them from, huh?"

"Street corners, mostly; outcasts of civilised society," I joked, and my teacher grinned in acknowledgement, one shoulder giving a small jerk upwards in mirth as he subdued a laugh. "Still, it's not like SOLDIER is much better."

Merowian turned his head and narrowed his eyes at me. "We _are_ the civilised society. Only we are kind enough to accept you ragamuffins, unlike so many others," the Second Class played along, with a toss of his head and an overly-exaggerated pompous accent. I laughed a second later, failing in keeping my amusement under wraps, and the man asked a little while later, "How did you wind up in here anyway, Chocobo?"

Despite my resentment, the nickname seemed to be sticking, which was sad. I could only hope Merowian would keep it to himself, at best. "That would be a result of training with Commander Rhapsodos." At the SOLDIERs puzzled look, I elaborated, "He took me on as a one-on-one student for SOLDIER."

Merowian's eyes lit up at this new information, and I got the feeling like I could've just done something _quite_ wrong. "Really? Oh, well, even Rhapsodos is civilised; more so than you petulant Cadets!" he reverted back to his posh voice, and I shook my head with a roll of my eyes.

"..._Rhapsodos_...is not civilised. We are talking about two different Genesis Rhapsodos', that's what we're doing," I summed up, nodding to reassure myself.

Merowian was quick to rebuke, despite his grin that told me he was delighted to keep playing around like this, "Rhapsodos is civilised...and honourable! For Rhapsodos is an honourable man; so are they all, all honourable men."

And as my 'Materia Training' teacher with the sling on his arm howled with stomach-clenching laughter, not only did I feel as though I was out of the loop for something not extremely hilarious, and not only that this statement was probably some sort of jab at or reference to Genesis' appreciation for LOVELESS, but I also knew that this night in the infirmary was looking liable to being one of the longest nights of my life.

...

If it wasn't obvious, I didn't even get a chance to try out and sleep in my new position, lying flat on the floor with my right foot propped up on the bed, because Merowian was talking _all night_. I figured he was on some sort of medication; he had to be, otherwise I _really_ wasn't looking forward to my next Materia class with the man.

Surprisingly, I was let out at eight o'clock the next morning with little fussing about my knee. The nurses tending to me did seem a little confused about the sleeping position I had adopted, though. They advised me to use a crutch, and told me not to strain myself; to sit down if it was hurting even slightly (and every opportunity I got) and don't travel too far around the Shinra building, and to make sure that I was either near some people or I had a way of getting in touch with someone.

Yawning slightly, I accepted all this fussing, pretending to listen, and when I got out, I made a plan for myself for the day; it was weird, having a day off like this. After they spoke with Merowian - and I presumed the man was looking to get him some, because they were giggling like schoolgirls - they told me not to attend any classes, because of my sprained knee.

I didn't even know you could sprain a knee, and I didn't know I'd get off classes at all for it (we only had 'Introduction to Weaponry' and 'Strategy and Tactics' classes today, so they weren't overly active) so it was a weird and sudden thing to have to plan out my day without being cornered by certain people...like Genesis.

So naturally, my plan for the day consisted mostly _of_ cornering certain people like Genesis. Hey, it was my day off, I was going to pester people and enjoy it like I should.

But after hobbling about on crutches for forty-five minutes, and finding no one _anywhere_, I got depressed and started to head for the canteen. It was a short break and a ten-minute limp before I arrived, so it was nine or after it by the time I reached my destination.

No one was down here either. Which was confusing; I hadn't been this late before, so I figured the place was just deserted in the mornings because I had a habit of rising early. Nine was a relatively acceptable time, wasn't it?

Apparently not. I hobbled up, retrieved myself a pancake and settled down at one of the tables, tucking in to the sugary treat.

It had been heated before, but was now unpleasantly cool. I didn't mind cold pancakes, I liked them hot, but between the two I detested. I ate about a quarter of the pancake, licked off all the sugar (only because no one was around) and threw it in the bin, shaking my head sadly. "What a waste..." I mumbled to myself plaintively.

"Well, would you look who it is!"

I looked up in surprise at a new arrival to the cafeteria, and grinned happily, as a fellow Cadet I recognised sat down beside me. "Hey there, Jacko!" I welcomed, grinning at Jack Riley.

The gunman smiled back, pushing a hand through his bouncy dark-brown curls, before offering the other hand to me; I shook it heartily. "I didn't get to tell you before, good job with the whole 'decoy' thing with Merowian," he complimented.

"Ah, no trouble," I answered bashfully. "It was Rensky's plan; that man is genius, right?"

Jack chuckled. "He sure is, and I'll make sure to let him know you think so when I next see him." There was a short pause, as the Cadet looked around a little, and I noticed there was some surprise when he spoke next, "Merowian wasn't _too_ bad, was he?"

I blinked, nonplussed. "I don't follow," I informed him, my eyebrows disappeared as they rose above the rim of my helmet. He gestured to the right of me, at my crutch.

"The rest of us didn't really get any lasting damage, just a tiny burn, and you were on the top. You were down before we jumped him, did you twist your ankle or something?" he asked me, his brow furrowed in slight concern.

I shook my head with a small smile. "Naw, actually, this was caused by someone else. I had training with Commander Rhapsodos yesterday, and...well, he isn't exactly the most _lenient_ tutor."

Jack leaned back in his seat, his hazel eyes suddenly alight with curiosity, one hand tapping the table every so often. "Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you about that. How did you and Zack manage to get individual training with Commanders Rhapsodos and Hewley?" he questioned, a small smile pulling at the side of his mouth.

"It's my understanding..." I trailed off, scratching the back of my neck as I thought how to reply, "That it's a sort-of experiment for them. I think they want to see how much faster a Cadet advances with individual tutelage on top of Cadet training."

"Aah," the curly-haired Cadet nodded slowly in enlightenment. He adjusted the strap on his shoulder, which I was just now noticing lead to his rifle, which seemed cleaner than the first time I'd seen it. It seemed like so long ago now, even if it was only a few weeks. "Pretty sweet gig you got yourself there. The one time anyone would actually _like_ to be a guinea pig." Jack winked with a grin.

I grinned back, and decided to change the topic of discussion. "Uh, where have you been this morning?"

One of Jack's eyebrows slowly rose as he stared at me. "Uh...practicing my shooting," he replied slowly, as though I was dense, and he gestured to the gun visible over his shoulder.

I grimaced. "Forget that I asked that," I pleaded, making the Cadet chortle in amusement. I took that as a yes, and continued my inquiries. "I was in the infirmary last night, and you're the first person I've seen since being released at _least_ an hour ago. Do you know where everyone else is?"

His eyebrows raised lazily as he swung back in his chair, his feet keeping himself balanced there. "Uh, Coby, everyone's on their day off. Why would they be awake right now?" he answered with another question, and I recoiled in surprise.

"'_On their day off_'? What are you talking about, Jack?"

Jack looked pityingly at me. "It must be quiet in that infirmary you were staying at, because today's all anyone's been talking about. Four times each year Shinra get in letters from the homes of all their employees. Today's Letter Day!"

My hand, previously resting on my crutch, clenched it quite suddenly. "Letters? From home?" I echoed, and Jack sent me a weird look.

"What, all you can do today is be a parrot?" he mocked, and I fixed him with an unimpressed stare. The Cadet grinned, completely unaffected. "Yes! We're all getting letters from home! Everyone's really excited to hear from their folks, even me, and I've barely been gone from them a month!"

I looked at the excitable gunner with total seriousness. "Do you know how Shinra get these letters?" I asked, my voice quite a lot lower, despite that it wasn't a private topic, and that there was no one but us in the room.

Jack raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Coby, I would presume that they get _sent_ to Shinra? They make sure all our relatives know about today, so no one's disappointed. But hey, you never know, Turks could hold our families at gunpoint to make sure they write a letter to us, I don't know for sure, man."

"Your sarcasm isn't helping matters," I told him shortly, my arms folded and me pouting. Jack grinned.

"Pish posh. Why do you need to know anyhow, Coby? You afraid your parents didn't hear - because it's doubtful that they didn't, you know. Everyone loves Letter Day, I even remember some news people talking about it last year on the news," he reassured, but I was not in the least concerned about _that_.

I was more concerned that people might've gone to my house, knocked on the door and asked for some letters to send to their child fighting for Shinra. Considering that _no one_ would be there, I wasn't feeling especially comfortable right about now.

And when I asked Jack a question, his response didn't fill me with confidence; "_Everyone_ gets their letter, Coby. Parents, siblings, cousins, friends all write one letter to be sent to us here, and the only person who doesn't have any of those outside Shinra is General Sephiroth, or so the legend goes."

I had the feeling that he wouldn't be the only one this year, not by a long shot. Unless if I could come up with some sort of crazy, elaborate and stupid plan that just might work, I had the distinct feeling that the Turks would be visiting me in the cafeteria again.

"I've got to head on," Jack excused himself, hopping to his feet. "Me and a few friends are planning a day in Midgar before we get our letters, and I'm going to get my money gathered. See you around, Coby." The Cadet punched my shoulder in farewell, leaving too suddenly for me to give my own goodbyes.

Crazy plan...I needed to make myself a thinking room.

...

In a miraculous turn of events, I found myself back in the same lounge room that I had seen Reno for the first time, when he was only dressed in a towel in the 'Turk Towel incident'. I remembered thinking that the room looked comfortable, and that's all I needed for a thinking room, so after hobbling down many corridors and pressing many elevator buttons, after about an hour and a half, I found myself with my feet up in the Turks' lounge room.

It was surprisingly nice, being here. The walls were painted in all sorts of soft but bright colours in a cool, modern fashion, the TV was huge and surrounded by speakers (not that I was watching anything, for fear that Reno would come out of somewhere and actually _kill_ me this time) and the sofas and armchairs were made of top-notch materials so that whenever I first sat down on this sofa, I felt like I was going to be enveloped totally and eaten by it.

Staring at the bright wall, the most colourful thing I figured I'd seen in Midgar (excluding things such as Reno's hair, of course) turned out to be a great way to help me think, and I must've been sitting there for fifteen minutes or more before somebody entered from a different door than Reno had previously.

And of course, it was Reno himself; by the time I'd brought myself out of my reverie enough to glance at the Turk, he was returning my stare with a disbelieving one, head tilted at an angle and his mouth in a small 'o'. As I half-expected, he was not well-dressed; instead of his usual slapdash Turk uniform of a dark suit, always without a tie, his shirt never tucked into his trousers and a stain on the shirt, now he just wore a black t-shirt and trousers.

It was astonishing how, in spite of the change, the man still looked as intimidating as ever. The top-half anyway; the only reason I hadn't yet wet myself from fear, the only reason he wasn't as scary as a Turk even slightly any more, was simply because he wore nothing on his feet.

There was something adorable and so _human_ about his bare feet and little toes that made me forget that I once feared this man. I knew that he could throw my head at doors and give me brain damage; I knew he could spin me like a ragdoll and send me staggering away from him with a small shove; I knew his training enabled him to be capable of killing me in at least one-hundred different ways. But that was the last time I ever feared Reno the Turk.

He didn't say anything, so I spoke first. "Hi," I greeted simply, raising a hand in his direction.

Reno's eyes flickered from me, to the crutch resting against the sofa beside me, to me, to the wall where I was now looking, and back to me again. "...Hey," he welcomed after a pause, and walked to the fridge, fishing out a can of some drink. He collapsed down next to me a few seconds later, cracked open his can, and a very strong smell of whatever the drink was filled my nostrils. After a moment, he tilted the can towards me. "Want some?"

I raised an uncertain eyebrow at him. "How do I know it's not poisoned?" I enquired, only half-joking. I was quite wary of that smell.

With a weird look at me, and without a moment's hesitation, he threw back his head and drank a healthy portion. I took it from him then, still unsure but without any alternative option.

I took a cautious sip from the foul-smelling can - and instantly regretted it. The drink tasted as foul as it smelled, my unprepared taste buds got the shock of their lives, and I could feel them burning, along with anything else the liquid touched.

I choked painfully and instinctively spat it all out, putting the can on the table in front of us. Reno fell back against the couch and howled with raucous laughter as I coughed out as much of the horrible taste and smell I could, eventually scraping my tongue against my arm and sleeve. It didn't work.

"_Gah_, that's awful! _Blech_, ugh..." I complained, muffled by my arm. The humoured Turk put a hand to his forehead, still mindlessly giggling. I got up and limped towards the kitchen area and started washing my mouth out with water; it didn't really help, but I was just grateful that I hadn't swallowed any of..._whatever_ that was.

Reno shook his head, weak from the laughter and letting out a chuckle every so often. "What, you've never had alcohol before, yo?" he questioned lightly, picking up the can and taking another swig.

I stared at him with wide eyes. "Uh, _no_! And with good reason, apparently! Yuck, never let me have any of that again..." I trailed off, straightening up from the sink, noticing Reno staring at me intently, despite taking a deep swig of the drink. I cringed, scrunching up my nose. "You hold your liquor so well, yet you _can't_ be old enough to be _that_ used to alcohol," I said sceptically, beginning the trek back to the sofa, hobbling on my bad leg.

An eyebrow raised at me mockingly. "Heh, you're cute, kiddo," Reno teased me, poking me in the side when I collapsed next to him. I could feel my face turn red, and I shuffled as inconspicuously as I could away from him, very uncomfortable. "No mummy or daddy of mine told me alcohol was bad, unlike for you, and a lot of where I grew up wasn't exactly law-abiding, unlike for you," he explained with a small, defensive sneer, turning away to take another drink from the can.

I raised an eyebrow at him, suddenly and strangely feeling sorry for Reno. It was weird because, at the mention of my parents, I had grown so used to becoming very upset and quiet, and then spending a few hours thinking on my own. But now, I only felt pity, because Reno had seemingly experienced little, or none, of this.

Had I overcome my grief, finally? I was oddly pleased.

I slowly reached out a hand to the Turk whose back was turned, but as I caught sight of my hand, I realised; I was supposed to be a _boy_. No boy I know would reach out a hand to comfort an unhappy person; they'd punch them on the arm, or tease them a little to lift their spirits. But I couldn't imagine teasing or physically assaulting Reno, not when he looked so vulnerable.

No matter how easy I could act like a guy, I just wasn't. Maternal instincts forbade me to kick the guy when he was down, not when I could see he was suffering...

Of course, Reno _was_ a Turk. This could all be an act; after all, the Turks seemed to have shown even the slightest interest in me. Sure, just because I accidentally found Tseng's office instead of Angeal's, but it was somewhat undeniable now that even a small amount of interest had been stirred.

...Should I have drunk from that can? DNA and all that...and Tseng was, so people say, devilishly smart...

Ugh, I was just being paranoid. Get over yourself, Sapphire!

I pulled back my hand, feeling like a pat on the shoulder was a little too personal for the man who usually spent his time shouting at me or hating my guts, but I couldn't stop myself from trying to comfort him. "I'm sorry to hear that, Reno," I murmured, trying to sound as tough as I could as I did so, and he turned to look at me, his eyes narrowed. I could see the slight suspicion, but I couldn't stop myself from continuing, "Kids don't always have to rely on their parents when they're young - you turned out alright, anyway."

And as the Turk stared at me, I slowly rose from the sofa, grabbed my crutch, and hobbled out of the room, to the silent sound of my mental chant to myself...

_You're a fool; you're a fool; an idiot, stupid fool..._

The only consolation I had, was that I'd come up with a plan.

* * *

When Genesis woke up that morning, he knew it was going to be a bad day.

It was just something about this day, everyone all cheerful and nostalgic and thinking fondly of the past and people back home, that grinded on his gears. The happiness wasn't a bad thing, of course it wasn't; everyone deserves to be happy.

But it was the reason they were happy; hearing from people 'back home', talking about things that concerned people in the past - Genesis was a strong believer in living in the present, and it irritated him that people in the same unit as him would hear from relatives they saw so rarely and were a part of the past, and laugh and be happy.

_This_ was the present. Either laugh and be cheerful about what was currently happening, or don't, because there was little point in looking to the past like this.

...Of course, that was little more than a cover-up. The true reason for his hatred of Letter Day came a few hours later, in the form of a small red envelope with his name written on the front in loopy, cursive writing.

When Angeal handed him the letter, Genesis felt a sudden blast of fury, and felt a strong impulse to set fire to the envelope, or at least simply bin it. However, he simply decided to read whatever they had written for him, if only to mock them for the rest of the day. Plus he knew Angeal would be very unhappy with him if he tossed it without a second thought.

So, with a laboured sigh, the SOLDIER Commander took the envelope, tore it open and quickly scanned through what his foster parents back in Banora had written to him.

Angeal's eyes were positively glowing with joy, so obviously he had already read his own letter. And as Genesis scrunched up his own letter from home in a leather-coated fist and skilfully tossed it into a paper bin on the other side of the room, his eyebrows low over his eyes and a scowl on his face, it was evident that he too had read his letter from home.

Angeal was disappointed at his childhood friend's incapability of accepting affection from the people who took him in, but because he knew not to expect any differently, it had a smaller-than-usual affect on the caring SOLDIER. He simply brushed off Genesis' anger, and decided that he should take his leave from Genesis.

Although he knew inside that leaving his friend angry like this was not the kindest thing to do, and Angeal found himself feeling somewhat selfish in admitting it to himself, but he did not want one of his favourite days in the year to be ruined by his friend's foul mood.

Still, if that was the only reason, no doubt Angeal would've remained with Genesis, despite his misery. However, Angeal also had other duties to attend to; Zack had previously agreed to having a training session on this day, so he needed to prepare for that. Angeal also wanted to find some of his friends in Shinra to find out about their lives at home, and he also wanted to spend a little time with Sephiroth, to ensure that the General was not too sorely affected by both the day and by Genesis' destructive mood.

After all that was done, he could - and most likely would - spend the rest of the day with Genesis as the redhead rampaged about various topics of his current day-to-day life. It didn't bother him as much as he anticipated.

So as Genesis sat in his office and glared at nothing, Angeal hastily made to leave the room, his own crisp-white envelope clutched in his hand and ready to be removed and read through at least three more times in the next hour or so. But to Angeal's surprise, after he pushed open the door and stepped out into the hallway...

A bobbing blue-headed Cadet rushed to meet him, right foot raised just off the ground and a crutch keeping his balance. Angeal's slightly widened eyes flickered over the Cadet, and his right leg - the knee of which was tightly and densely wrapped in white bandages. Angeal cocked an eyebrow as Cobalt looked up to his face, and enquired, "Am I to presume that you trained with Genesis yesterday?"

The boy's cheeks turned pink, and he ducked his head, face hidden by his helmet. "I was in the infirmary all night," he quietly admitted, causing Angeal to laugh in carefree amusement. The Commander strongly patted Cobalt's shoulder a few times, and his blue eyes rose to see Angeal's smile.

"Have you received your letter from home yet, Blue?" he asked lightly, and blinked in faint surprise as the young Cadet took a strange reaction to the question.

Suddenly much more animated, the boy grinned sheepishly, bounced a little on his one good foot and raised a hand to scratch at the back of his head. "I just found out this was Letter Day no time ago, so I haven't been down to reception to get my own letter just yet." The boy winked cheekily as he continued, "I just decided I'd guilt-trip my tutor for my injury before I'd get it, so I can have something to cheer me up after I'm forced to do five-hundred squats on one leg."

While Cobalt tittered weakly at his half-hearted joke, Angeal's brow furrowed. "That's not such a good idea, Blue. Genesis is in a lousy mood today, as with all Letter Days...you should probably avoid him," the caring Commander advised. Cobalt's eyebrows raised in some surprise.

"Really? Well, I should cheer him up then!" the Cadet enthused with a grin, making to go forward into Genesis' office that Angeal had just left. Angeal stopped him with a steady hand at the centre of his chest pushing him back slightly. It had a bit more of a drastic affect than he had anticipated; Cobalt practically jumped back, though seemed to make it look as calm as was physically possible.

"If you want, you can wait here and I'll go get your letter for you. I could help you back to your room without you having any accidents as well, if you need me to," the First Class SOLDIER offered, but Cobalt eagerly shook his head in refusal of his proposal.

"No, no, I'll keep Genesis company. And you don't have to go down to collect my letter for me Angeal; I mean, I'm pretty sure my parents don't know about Letter Day, and Sapphire's not the type to sit down and write something meaningful, so I doubt I got anything anyway," he explained his shake of the head, and with a little smile and no more words, he shoved the door open with his crutch and hopped in.

Meanwhile, Angeal was frowning in clear displeasure. Blue was not expecting a letter from his family? There _must've_ been a misunderstanding.

Angeal had _met_ Sapphire. Physically met her, a good few days before he met Cobalt. He had spent at least half an hour of non-stop talking with the free-spirited young woman over a cup of tea, and he had enjoyed every moment as she simply jabbered on and on about whatever new random thought sprung into her head.

And despite her general hyperactivity, it seemed to be equally balanced with her care for her twin brother. She had shown both encouragement and concern when they had discussed Cobalt joining Shinra as SOLDIER, both of which were a testament to how close the twins were. Sapphire also seemed to hold a high-enough value for recording precious moments, given that she had taken and given him a hastily-taken picture of the two of them grinning over the tea, just to commemorate the day. Eccentric and odd, it may have seemed, but it was an extremely nice sentiment.

She didn't seem the type to miss an opportunity to write to her brother, not really. And Angeal figured that she must've got that from somewhere; at least one of the Amell parents must've placed an emphasis on the importance of remembering certain events.

Therefore, it was understandable that the Commander would feel sceptical about Blue's disbelief about getting a letter from home.

So as Blue somewhat filled in for his position by keeping Genesis company for the next little while (Angeal was unsure how long he could expect the two to put up with each other) Angeal decided that a good thing for him to do would be to go to the ground floor, talk to the woman behind the counter responsible for the letters, and ask about letters for a Cadet named Cobalt Amell.

After a few minutes of waiting after she had disappeared into the back room, with Angeal tapping his fingers on the desk with a serious expression as he stared at the receptionist, quickly flicking through the stack of envelopes left, he was not surprised and quite delighted as she emerged from the room, equipped with a dazzling smile and a brown envelope with a lot of ink on both sides.

"As you requested, Angeal!" the woman seemed surprisingly enthusiastic, considering this was likely what she had been doing all day. "A letter to a Cadet Cobalt Amell, written to him by Saphie with a smiley face."

The dark-haired SOLDIER couldn't restrain his grin, as he examined the envelope, coated in little notes from various people and cute little doodles that Angeal found himself physically pressed to decipher. He thanked the receptionist, and started towards the lifts, the envelope held tightly yet delicately in his strong, capable hands.

Close by, hidden in the shadows, a lively redhead visibly slumped his suited shoulders. "Looks like this little _snatch 'n' grab_ mission's gone belly-up, yo. We ain't getting that envelope now," he complained quietly to a small microphone hidden in his suit.

A voice spoke into his ear something extremely quiet, causing the Turk to cringe.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand, yo. See you in five."

* * *

...Well? The quote from Doctor Who? Did you find it? Or will it be in the next part? I'm just evil. ;)

grandshadowseal: Nice to be welcomed? D'awwh, well, I try to be hospitable. You're a reviewer! You hold a little place in my heart all to yourself! :D

Ahh, yay! Someone nearby, that's fantastic! And yeah, I think that's about right, some time around that anyway. Pretty sure I was asleep at your time, though...Man oh man, who wakes up in the middle of the early morning like that? Seek medical help, my friend! ;)

Sapphire, sleep a day away, with a perfectly reasonable excuse? Not only would she never be so wise as to think up such a genius plan, it didn't occur to me either! So nah, Sapphire's going to have to cope. Heh heh...

And as for the letter, we must have confidence! Sapphy will have to think of something to wriggle herself out of more awkwardness. Poor girl. The fact that she's the main character in a story with one of the genres being 'Humour' dictates that she must never be at peace.

...I'm a terrible person...but that's a good thing. :D

AnonyMouse: Woohoo! A new review! Sweetness! ;)

I could never take it as an insult, my friend! Feedback is one of the most important reasons for me writing this! And you, bad at articulating? That 'slightly-cumbersome tete-a-tete greatness' description you used earlier for describing the interactions with Cobalt and Genesis is one of the best descriptions of anything I've ever heard. Plus that whole chocolate milk thing for Sephiroth and Cobalt was awesome. Need I say more?

...Why am _I_ boosting _your_ ego? Hello?! :D

Oh, the letter? No problems! Coby's got it sorted...Yeah, completely sorted. Just wait 'til Part II. Ooh... I'm getting good at this suspense stuff! Dramatic build-ups, cliffhangers, teasers, foreshadowing...You think I should change the genre to Drama? Scary!

Ah, yeah, Genesis is _fine_, sure. Genesis' mood is as changeable and unpredictable as the weather. Since when are people getting far too much snow in March, I ask you?! There will be more from Genesis' mood swings, I assure you.

...And I can't begin to tell you how weirdly satisfying it is to have corrupted someone in such a way. Spread the word! Sparky's Disease has gone international! Muahahahahaha_hahahahahaa_!

Oh, and here I thought I was being too dark and dramatic with that bit about Hojo. I suppose not. And I shame myself by being completely uninformed (keep in mind, I only watched Advent Children a few weeks ago-any other knowledge of this amazing collection I only know from Wiki reading) but I presume you're referencing that Hojo turns into some kind of zombie-ghost? Perhaps more reading is in order... *covers face in embarrassment*

Ahh, and normality is restored. Thank you very much for another lovely review! :D

Kyoichi Amaya: Yay, a new reader! Thank you so much for that! Oh, and also, thanks for that. We Pikachus like to know we're appreciated. ;)

WhiteWerefox: Good to see you again! Many thanks for that! ;)

Haha, I loved your speculations for what you thought this chapter should be! As much as I would've loved to devote another chapter to Sapphire's noticeably odd sleeping arrangements *points to 'Sapphire's Shinra Shenanigans' story* this chapter needed to be about setting up for the next chapter, which should be covered and dripping with exciting drama and stuff! OOH SCARY! XD

...Every chapter really _does_ have a reference to the toilet, don't they? But no! No, I don't like that! I don't want that to be what people take away from this story! No! No more mentions of the bathroom for a long time! Nope, who said something about the toilet? :D

...But you like it? Aw, geez! _Now_ what do I do? XD

D'awwwh, that's cute! But while night time may be writing time in _my_ head, that time is supposed to be for sleeping, so you can give a long, loving review _next_ chapter! Hee hee, I kid, I kid; long or short, reviews never fail to make my day, so thank you VERY much!

Plus, I love that word you used, 'Readership'. It could just be the Lord of the Rings funk I'm going through right now, but all I can think of is Lord Elrond's line, "Very well. You shall be the Readership of the Pixel." ;)

Everyone, thank you so much for all your reviews-I hope I convey to you just how delighted I am to hear from you all! And now that I know people are actually liking this story (20 reviews in 10 chapters-YES!) my curiosity about the elaborate and fantastic - and to me, mostly unknown - story of Final Fantasy VII is not the only reason I'm writing it! Thank you all!

Also, my sincerest thanks go out to AnonyMouse (Thank you for being awesome, my friend!) and SakiWatari (Hi there, newcomer! Glad to see you enjoyed it!) for their reviews for chapter two of 'Sapphire's Shinra Shenanigans', because for some reason I don't even know myself, I don't reply to reviews in it. Don't ask me, sometimes I just decide things.

...Phew! These reply sections are getting longer and longer-AAH! It makes me so happy to get this kind of interest! Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy reading about Sapphire's mishaps!


	12. The Argument of Letter Day -Part II

Heh, oops. I did say this would be put up as quickly as possible. When I said that, I meant, last weekend...

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

But! In my defense, last week was a _busy_ one. Two days I spent at music festivals, semi-mock exam at school, and then all Saturday was spent drawing a picture for my friend and fellow lover of Pokémon, and my goodness, if he is not satisfied, I'm going to kill the guy.

Still, I showed someone else, and she was impressed. But she's easily impressed. :D

And now I'd be all like, "Yay! Bank holiday Monday! Should get some writing done!" but I'm going out shopping the entire day. Sorries. Uh...I'm sure I won't be drawing another huge picture again this weekend! ;)

Ooh, but I can't wait for The Apprentice to start up again. Gahaha, that new advert is FANTASTIC! Made all the funnier because we played 'Goldfinger' in school band. Ahh, but I can't wait for our next piece. _Every-boooody, needs someboooody_...You know I'll be wearing the hat! (Heh, you think I haven't already got a fedora? I have three!)

Oh, and AnonyMouse? Your request has been accepted (as if I could refuse you! Ha.) The next chapter of Saphie's Shenanigans is in the making! So, if you've read the last chapter, you can go ahead and read **Chapter 3** of 'Sapphire's Shinra Shenanigans' now! Assuming, you know, I have it posted. XD

..._Maaaaan_, this note is FULL of nonsensical jibber-jabber. Is it me, or was April the _shortest month ever_?! I feel like it was March yesterday! How queer, as I would say. ;)

Eee-whoa! You remember the build-up last chapter? Fairly boring stuff, I imagine, but here we go, with some proper suspense angst drama intensity! Enjoy! XD

My responses to reviews are at the bottom, as always. Hee hee...good job everyone! Thanks for everything!

And REMEMBER: challenge from Part I? No one said anything about finding a quote from Doctor Who, so is it _here_? Or do my readers have no interest in fantastic TV? Good luck! It could be here somewhere!

* * *

12 - The Argument of Letter Day; Part II

"Huh?! What the-"

...I heard a faintly echoing thud, though I could tell it was somewhere close, despite my lack of vision.

"Amell? Darn it, kid, wake up!"

I felt myself being shaken by a hand on my shoulder, though it seemed like my mind was filled with cotton and only felt it happening very vaguely and half a second after.

"Cobalt! Hey, kiddie, come on..."

"Genesis...Blue? Is he-Genesis, what have you done?"

"Ugh, you think this was me? Waken up, Cobalt! Come on!"

...

As I drifted in my head, the space both comfortingly and worryingly filled with simple silent blackness, I peacefully looked back to remember what had so suddenly slipped my mind, about what had just happened no time ago.

After meeting Angeal in the corridor outside Genesis' office and deceptively and cunningly convincing him to retrieve his planted letter from Sapphire without him ever knowing, I had entered Genesis' office, to see the grumpy SOLDIER seated in an armchair, staring at the wall. His posture was lazy, slouched in the chair as he was with his hands on his lap, which made the irate man look more casual than anything; but I liked to think I was bright enough to see past that.

The redhead's eyes had darted straight to me when I entered, and when I looked I could see a misdirected glare that had quickly eased to that of faint irritation and speculation. The way he now stared at the wall was not really with anger (I supposed he was hiding that) but with such intensity it caused an inadvertent spinal shiver.

Also, Angeal had warned me before I had entered that Genesis made unpleasant company on Letter Days for an unexplained reason that I liked to imagine was for some sort of deep or emotional reason that had slightly traumatised the SOLDIER; if not to allow his cryptic and irritating ways to make more sense in a _Hollywood_ style you'd see in movies, then because it would make a good, meaningful story he could tell me at some point, speaking in riddles of a lost love or an unknown child.

At the thought of a _lost love_, I couldn't help thinking of the many relationships the popular and well-known SOLDIER Commander must have been involved in, and felt a cheek-warming flare of embarrassment rush through me, though not for the reason I expected.

I shook it off, and stopped while still standing, behind a sofa that masked my crutch and bad leg from Genesis' sight. I had a feeling that Genesis, noticeably out-of-it as he seemed, hadn't even noticed when he looked up, and then instantly looked away before he could watch me hobble and limp on the bothersome crutch.

I could delicately mention it, say it wasn't his fault, forgive him for causing the slight pain the injury caused me and the agony of a night spent listening to the most infuriatingly talkative teacher I'd ever had. I could've been meek and mild, if not for various reasons. I'd like to say I reacted the way I did because I had an image to maintain, but truthfully, it was just my way.

With blunt brazenness, I threw my right leg up onto the little table in front of him, and as he reacted by simply looking at the bandages, I scowled, in a desperate attempt to cover my grin. "You did this to me, you know. It's all your fault," I accused, though I was quite clearly joking. Which was why I didn't anticipate too bad a reaction.

The First Class SOLDIER got to his feet, his eyes not once wavering as they glared intensely right at me; and suddenly I didn't feel quite so playful anymore. "If you were expecting an apology, you had best leave now," he spoke with such a furious and calm voice, that I decided it was probably a good idea not to bait him...I hated to admit it, but the poetry-reciting drill sergeant with the flashy coat and all the flamboyance sure knew how to threaten people.

And I was sure he found some sort of satisfaction as I appealed to him, "No-" and quickly cut myself off. Genesis, I had realised a very short while ago, had always had a reason for what he did. He was always testing me - strange man - in some form or another, every single time I ever saw him.

When I had discovered this, I had felt so proud, but I was no closer to discovering just how to prove myself to him, at _any_ time. I was convinced I'd failed him time and time again.

"I wasn't looking for one," I replied, straightening my back and hoping that it added a couple of extra inches to my height. My angered tutor narrowed his eyes carefully, though he looked no less menacing. No more either, which could only be good. "I've been bored all day. I'm not sure if I'm getting a letter, and I just figured I'd spend some time figuring out my tutor...you know, might as well, Angeal seems to think this whole teaching thing will be going on for a while."

Whatever it was I did, it seemed as though it had saved my life.

Slowly, the red-garbed SOLDIER sat back down, and similarly slowly I took my foot off the table, though I couldn't keep the knee from aching just slightly. He gestured me to sit next to him on the sofa, and I did, but my discomfort made me sit as far away as possible while still being seated 'next' to him.

He examined me cautiously, looking a lot more calm, his mouth tilted up into the tiniest of smiles and looking completely natural on his face as he enquired, "You aren't getting a letter?"

"I...don't think so. My sister might send one, but I don't think she'd be very good at the whole sentimentality of it." I was very cautious with how I displayed my emotions at that moment, I wasn't too sure how Cobalt would react with this, which was _bad_. So naturally, I tried to divert the subject away from me. "Did you get a letter?"

Genesis' expression changed to an irritated one, and he inclined his head in a specific direction. I glanced over, and sure enough, there was a bin, with a firmly scrunched up and ripped envelope the only thing in there. "It would seem as though we have something in common, Cadet," he stated, and I cringed. I did _not_ like that.

I didn't really know how to reply to the statement, so I stayed silent. Genesis turned his head to me, blew back a part of his hair that seemed to cover his right eye more than staying where it should, and then glanced warily to my knee.

I wasn't sure what he was going to say, surely nothing _heartfelt_. So when his enquiry of "Does it hurt?" was soft and his face cut off from any emotion, I was quite surprised.

Somewhat unnerved by the strangest conversation I'd had with my teacher, I was cautious where I tread, but I desperately wanted to say or do something that would stop Genesis from acting like this. I brushed off his concern like Genesis would a speck of dust on his beloved coat, and informed him, "Nah, barely. I could walk on my own just fine, I just asked for the crutches for show. Uh...sorry."

Sure, the statement was kind-of a lie. It did hurt a little, and I expected that I could walk without crutches in a few hours. Genesis simply nodded, and looked to the floor, clearly deep in thought.

I let him think, and after a little while, as I grew more and more uncomfortable, I decided to mention, "How sad is it that on the day off, all I can think of doing is going back to training?" I chuckled a little, meaning it as a joke, though I was being perfectly honest.

Genesis' crystalline blue eyes riveted to me for a few moments, examining me closely, before sweeping to his feet and sending me a look. "Come, then, Amell. I have nothing to do today, and it seems you are just as restless as I am. _All that awaits you is a sombre morrow, no matter where the winds may blow_...I shall start teaching you to use Materia!"

And with his declaration, mixed with a quick quote of his beloved poetry, I couldn't help my grin as I announced, "Ha ha, awesome!" I couldn't help again taking notice that he didn't help me up, even in my crippled state, and waited for him to lead the way before trailing at his heels with long leaps of my crutches.

It wasn't long before his long strides and my clumsy but swift hobbling brought us to a new room I hadn't been in before, a rather wide-open room that was worryingly reminiscent of the 'Survival Training' room...minus the smell of blood and vomit, I was delighted as I realised.

The room was bare, aside from the one somewhat large table on the other end of the room. Behind it was a cabinet, made completely of glass and bolted shut, with a considerable amount of little glowing crystals in the box.

He gestured to the box as he began towards it, informing me, "This is the small amount of low-level Materia that Shinra use to introduce you Cadets and Third Classes to using them. They're pathetically weak, easy to control and cost very little mana to cast, so they're perfect for you."

I was so happy about finally having something to do _and_ being introduced to Materia without the constant threat of death in Merowian's eccentric introduction to the class, I was completely unaffected by his jab at my incompetence of all things Shinra. "Oh, really?" I asked sarcastically, taking something disconcerting from his words rather than comforting.

Genesis unlocked the cabinet and gracefully retrieved one little crystal with the faintest green hue and glow to it. "Absolutely," he assured me with the tiniest smirk. "Even besides all that, this is a Restore Materia. You couldn't actually harm yourself or anyone else even if you wanted to with this."

"Once again, I can't help feeling like there's something you're not telling me. And considering my _successes_ so far as a Cadet, I can only expect this little ball of magic-y-ness to grow teeth and bite me," I replied sceptically, my voice completely deadpan. Genesis, whose gloved hand that was holding the Materia was reaching to give it to me, paused for a second to stare at me.

I stared right back, eyes wide and innocent, until he placed the Materia into my hand. "Before using the Materia, you're going to want to get a good feel of what it is, its shape, its power, everything about it. That sort of thing will come naturally, with time and experience."

I examined the little glowing green sphere, holding it in the centre of my palm, my eyes narrowed as I tilted my hand to see if it looked any different at changed angles; other than the refractions of the light giving off different colours, the little ball of aforementioned magic-y-ness remained cool, unchanged and tiny, but flawless.

"You need to be able to reach into the Materia consciously, to know everything it can do, to know how much you can do with it...it will make more sense if I told you to compare it to a different one, but that'll come later," Genesis gestured flippantly and vaguely with his hand. "It's hard to describe, but Restore Materia is quite an obvious one to recognise. It doesn't have something shocking and distinctive straight away, like Fire for example, but it just gives off a calming, healing aura. It's easy to tell apart from any offensive attacking Materia like Fire, Lightning, that sort of thing, but it will be more difficult for you to identify between it and other curative Materia, like Heal."

A few moments after he finished his explanation, I nodded as I took it all in and tried to save the information he'd told me; and silently wondered why it wasn't _him_ taking the 'Materia Training' class. I thought for a second then, and voiced my thoughts aloud while still examining the Materia, "I can see this sort of Materia class being much more beneficial than SOLDIER Second Class Merowian's. Why did he start the classes with _that_?"

The redhead smirked casually, turning to face the wall so his side was directed towards me, and examined me as he explained, "I'm given to understand there are three reasons for the man's strategy. For one, I believe that he likely lost his marbles years ago and has yet to find them again." I snorted at this, and Genesis' smirk only grew. "Two, is that there simply isn't enough time to treat each person in the class individually; Materia can be quite dangerous, and sensitive to each individual. And three, he says he always likes to make an impact. I believed that enough was said at that stage."

I chortled, and let the little sphere in my fingertips drop back into my hand. "I think I got it," I claimed, though to be honest I had very little idea what it was I was trying to 'get'. I only became less assured as Genesis turned his head and shoulders to look straight at me in such a way that suggested he had a difficult time believing me.

"You get it? You would be able to recognise a Restore Materia then, would you?" he enquired, his gloved hands slowly raising to rest on his hips, his expression completely sceptical and his voice higher in pitch and filled with sarcasm.

_You must not submit. You must not admit defeat._ "Yeah, I'm sure I could." _You're an idiot, Sapphire!_

Genesis' eyebrows skyrocketed as he stared at me, and for a few moments, there was no movement; other than me stubbornly jutting out my bottom lip, silently challenging him to say he didn't believe me. Unfortunately, recently I had been living my life by the old saying, 'in for a gil...' and someone told me that I'd die before I gave up on it.

I didn't really understand him before now. I thought it had meant I was dedicated to the saying, but _no_, it actually meant that it would get me killed. Yes, that was very funny. I needed to find that man again.

Genesis was clearly unimpressed, and gave the tiniest of snorts, before taking the Materia from my hand. "Well, in that case..." My tutor trailed off as he returned the Restore Materia to its given place, before crouching down and unlocking the much tougher-looking wooden doors. After some fiddling with combinations and other safety measures, he rose with a larger piece of Materia of the same colour, only I could literally see this one pulsing with magic-y potential, as opposed to the other which was relatively uninteresting and immobile. "Then I should like for you to identify whether or not this is a Materia of the same type."

I looked down at the sphere, suddenly feeling extremely embarrassed. I could feel my tutor's all-knowing eyes on me, clearly enjoying the moment of my humiliation, as I rolled the crystalline green Materia around my hand, shimmering and casting different colours and shades of light all around the room as it caught a different angle of light.

I looked up, momentarily distracted as I admired the light show. I noticed Genesis' expression shift and change slightly out of my peripherals, but I didn't dare look at him properly to see his mocking expression in all its glory.

After all, I did have my _pride_. I couldn't help a snigger at that thought. And then I looked back at the Materia held gently with my fingertips, rolling it around them, and couldn't help noticing that I _felt nothing_.

Nothing of what Genesis told me I should be able to feel. No sudden burst of realisation that this was some _other_ kind of Materia, no familiar feeling of the same Materia, not even the slightest inkling or hint about what this Materia could be.

Sheepishly, I looked to the ceiling yet again. "I haven't a clue," I murmured out of the corner of my mouth, my chin high, my eyes refusing to look down to see him; because then I knew they'd just keep travelling down and I'd end up looking at the floor, like...like I was _afraid_. Psh!

After a very short moment of utter silence, in which I was sure Genesis grinned, he mocked me. "...Sorry? Care to repeat that, Cadet?"

My eyes _did_ flicker down then, to glare at the redhead, who - as I expected - was grinning and looking more pleased with himself than I'd ever seen anyone look. "I don't know," I gritted out, my eyes so narrowed at him they might as well have been closed.

"Oh, _really_?" he replied sarcastically, and his grin lessened until there was quite a clear frown on his face. With a 'pop!' my personal space bubble was invaded, as Genesis leaned far too close to my face, bent over at the waist to glare at me closely.

I couldn't help but feel insulted in many tiny ways. I knew I was _short_, but really, he could bend over to lean towards me and _still_ be taller than me by quite a way. The way he examined my face like he did made me feel overly self-conscious, but I internally reassured myself that I would not be caught; that the First Class was simply looking for something else, making me quickly anxious of how I held myself.

I straightened up, my mother's lessons and warnings quickly coming to mind, and wiped my face clean of emotion. The hand that wasn't holding the Materia in front of me tucked away behind my back, and I pressed my lips together, attempting a solid and emotionless expression; a fairly obvious defensive move, but I didn't know what else to do, if I _could_ do anything else.

_That_ plan fell to shreds very quickly as the front of my shirt was grabbed, and I instantly began to struggle and kick my legs as I was lifted by strong, steady gloved hands far too high for my liking. I was now looking down at a scowling Genesis, and found he was...to put it mildly, rather _unhappy_.

"Don't play games with me. Don't ever, ever think you're capable of that," he warned me coldly, his expression angry, with his brow lowered over his narrowed eyes. "If you think you can work at this company and claim to be able to do things you cannot, you _will_ die. Make no mistake, Amell."

I was completely overcome. When I had decided earlier in the day to visit my tutor, a man who was gradually becoming a friend, I had expected something nice to pass the time...Gaia, what was in my head?

Angeal, to be fair, had warned me before I entered that he was in a bad mood...and he had advised me to avoid him. They were simple instructions. Unfortunately, between my ears was nothing but empty air. I just didn't think that Genesis, as weird and as rude as he could be on occasion, could really get _angry_ with someone; he seemed too nonchalant for that. And yet here he was, glaring at me like he'd dig a grave just to put me in it himself, his threatening voice a growl that made me inwardly flinch, his chest beneath his famous red leather coat taking in great, quick breaths.

With nothing else to do in this situation, I hung my head, stared at my slightly quivering hands - and clenching them quickly, and frowned for a few moments in an attempt to get some sort of sentence together. Finally, without looking at the furious Commander, I told him, "I'm very sorry, Commander. I was trying my best to learn but I did not experience what you described. I'll make sure not to lie again about my capabilities."

...I hated the way that every time I tried to be sincere, I sounded so fake. I don't think he could mistake it though; my voice was all quiet and humble and pathetic as a kicked puppy-dog's whine, even as I spoke in words that seemed like they'd sound better said sarcastically.

To my indignation, Genesis seemed to take it the _very bad_ way. With a loud 'humph' of discontentment, and with no consideration of the injury he had inflicted on me at all, he tossed me to the floor.

Yes, you heard right. Even despite my gammy knee, caused by the man himself, he didn't have the decency to set me back on my feet. I would've been happy with being let _drop_ to the floor, to be honest - it probably would've been less embarrassing than being helped back onto my feet after the Commander's bark.

But he literally pushed me back down onto the floor and spun to face away from me. This, I had to admit, I was glad for; the second he turned away I crumbled to the floor, clutching the Materia in one hand and my pulsing, throbbing knee in the other.

Genesis took a couple of steps away from me, and raised a gloved hand to his temples; he rubbed there, as though he was developing an ache in that area. Oh, _poor him_. "Don't...lie to me again, _kiddie_. If you think a simple, meek apology will be enough to pardon you, then be assured; I do not hold liars in good light.

"You may have Angeal wrapped around your little finger, but I am a very powerful man, and you are a little Cadet that no one will notice went missing on a training exercise." As he said this, it looked nearly like he was expecting his fingernails, though it seemed something of a pointless endeavour. You know, considering the gloves.

His words, harsh as they were, had cut me deep. I didn't consider myself to be too sensitive to cruel words directed at me, but I had been somewhat fond of the redhead. I was a little embarrassed of that, now.

Halfway through his little speech though, I had tuned out of his one-sided argument, as I had a 'no duh!' moment when I discovered something I should have long ago.

No duh! Genesis gave me the _Materia_! He had said it was the same as Restore and healed people, hadn't he? Or had he told me to figure that bit out...?

It didn't really matter now, anyway. My slightly dazed eyes watched the First Class SOLDIER attentively as he continued to speak, and though his actual words passed over my head, I could still detect the angry bite to his voice. His fists were clenched, those strands of hair he always flicked back were hanging over his eyes, and his shoulders were hunched. His arms now hung by his sides, lightly clenched into fists.

The image of the SOLDIER standing there was rather quick in blurring into a simple blob of red, until a bright glow of green emanated from somewhere close to me, completely covering my view of him, as I was still slumped against the wall in a noticeably painful position, and that ethereal green glow was working its way through the air quite rapidly.

The green turned to white, and I felt myself slump over on my side, my head ringing as it knocked on the cold metallic floor twice before everything disappeared, except for the Materia clenched in my fist and the distant feeling of the Commander shouting at me and shaking my limp body, and a First Class in full uniform appearing in the doorway a moment later.

_Stay on, stay on_, was all I could wish, thinking of the helmet resting on my head, before all sensations I _had_ been having were lost.

* * *

Angeal examined his childhood friend with a hard stare, his mouth in a tight frown. "You see what you have done here, Genesis?" he requested to know, his voice holding a threatening dark undertone which was the only noticeable expression of his frustration at that moment.

The burly dark-haired First Class was sitting on one end of a bench, his arms folded and his knees spread apart. The majority of his posture, very slightly lounging on the bench suggested that he cared little. The only proof to anyone that could hint at the man's high-strung nerves were the extraordinarily tightly-clenched fists hidden beneath his folded arms.

He watched his fellow SOLDIER as the younger man restlessly moved around; first having sat next to Angeal, then getting to his feet and pacing, then resting against the off-white walls for only very short moments. The man looked as though he felt guilty in various little ways, though his expression was filled simply with his usual arrogance.

It was fairly strange then, when his response clearly portrayed his anxiety. "_Gaia_, I pushed too far, I always do...the kiddie was just apologising, and I sent him...here!" His mutterings turned sharp by the end of his words, and he gestured with raised arms to where they were standing. "Only a Cadet, and I've committed him to this."

Angeal wasn't too sure what to say to his troubled friend. While he had felt the need to confront Genesis on his behaviour and mannerisms today, behaving like a child as he did, Genesis seemed genuinely concerned, and his remorse to Cobalt was noticeable. At least to Angeal, anyway.

So he felt rather bad when Genesis collapsed in the seat next to him and ran a gloved hand over his hair, bent over in the seat. He mumbled so quietly that Angeal could not hear what the troubled man was saying, but his mouth was moving in such a familiar way that he realised his friend was reciting his favourite poem.

Angeal rested a strong, reassuring gloved hand on the redhead's shoulder, understanding now that Genesis truly felt bad for causing the blue-haired fifteen-year-old to damage himself in such a way that he needed medical care. "Sorry Genesis. It isn't your fault, we know you didn't mean this to happen," he reassured, gesturing around at the white metallic walls keeping them enclosed in there.

Genesis glanced up at Angeal, but a second later, their eyes darted to a point farther up in the hallway as they heard a door being softly closed. As expected, the third of their trio emerged from the doorway, taking long, elegant but swift strides to reach his comrades. "What happened?" he interrogated the two with his eyes darting between them. Sephiroth's urgency was quite clear for the other two First Classes to see.

Genesis rubbed the lids of his eyes. "I injured the kid, by accident, in our little Materia training session. He had a well-trained Restore in his hand and figured out how to use it before I figured out he could," he explained simply. The stoic General stared at Genesis with no emotion.

And a second later, he confirmed what Genesis already believed; "This is your fault." Angeal jerked at the accusation, and wordlessly glared at his superior, while Genesis replied that he already knew. "In that case, how is he?" Sephiroth calmly moved on, his arms folded over his bare chest. Genesis straightened up in his seat and rested his head back against the wall, visibly tense.

Meanwhile, Angeal stared at the silver-haired General in disbelief. "You can't say it was Genesis' fault! Nobody could've known how to react in those situations, and Genesis was the one unfortunate enough to be accused of a mistake that everyone would have made in the same situation," the honourable dark-haired SOLDIER passionately defended his friend, even as he was fixed with two cynical and deadpan stares from his two fellow SOLDIERs.

Genesis would never admit the flattery he felt at that moment, that Angeal was so willing to take his side and fight to defend his honour (even though this was _Angeal_, if Genesis was a complete stranger, he expected that the Commander would have done the same) but in front of his two, perhaps more down-to-Gaia friends, he came off as being the slightest little bit naive. After all, it _was_ his fault; Angeal could say 'anyone would've done the same' until his voice turned hoarse, but the fact was, _Genesis had done it_.

Genesis had deliberately set out to humiliate the Cadet in a dangerous way. He had put the Materia into the boy's hand, with the knowledge that he was inexperienced and was unaware of how to use Materia. He had convinced the injured Cadet to take part in an unnecessary training lesson on his day off, and he had _injured_ the Cadet.

It was with this shame and aggravation with himself, that he told Angeal, "Don't even bother, Angeal. Cobalt's in there because of me." The redhead felt a big hand squeeze his shoulder, clearly being Angeal sitting next to him, and he looked between his two friends. "The kid's not well at all, he needs broken out of there...but I'm curious. Why are you here, Sephiroth?"

The General retained his emotionless expression, even though one eyebrow cocked ever so slightly. "What, you think I don't hold sympathy for the child? I heard what happened, and decided that he would likely need some assistance."

It didn't go unnoticed that Sephiroth did not mention anything about Angeal and Genesis already being here, despite that they were obviously going to be, and a silent unanimous decision was made not to enquire about that. _Best not to let the great and powerful General realise that a simple, accident-prone little Cadet could draw him away from his work_. Genesis smiled in vague amusement, and it didn't even cross his mind that Sephiroth could have been thinking something similar about him.

There was no movement or words for a few moments, until Angeal made a move that enticed Genesis and Sephiroth into glancing in his direction. The dark-haired man pulled an envelope out from a pocket in his uniform, brown in colour, taped closed and covered in ink and different types of calligraphy, all looking vaguely similar in a messy fashion in their own unique notes. Genesis rolled his eyes away from it, feeling that familiar angry feeling rear its head again, though considerably muted. Sephiroth didn't take a noticeable physical reaction to the envelope, though if one looked close enough they could see his frown tighten.

No words were said; unnecessary as they were. Genesis and Sephiroth silently and almost reluctantly watched Angeal's gloved hands as he ran his fingers over every side of the envelope, turning it over in his hands. He thought intensely for a few moments, trying to decide what to do with the letter, before gingerly handing it to the man seated next to him.

Without moving an inch, Genesis stared at his childhood friend in incredulity. Angeal explained his actions, "Sephiroth doesn't know Cobalt well enough; it would be an invasion of Blue's privacy to open his letter. I would never feel right with myself opening it, given that I've already received a letter I'm incredibly content with. Sapphire wouldn't want her letter going unread, and if I understood her like I think I did, she'd be happy with her twin's teacher reading it."

_That's a heck of a justification_, Genesis couldn't help but smile as he thought, and after examining each little note with utmost care, he slowly pulled the envelope open. The two onlookers couldn't help but marvel; they had never known Genesis to be so delicate with anything that wasn't his own, the least of which being a Cadet's home letter.

With the lightest of touches, to avoid making an indent on the page, he pulled out a single sheet. Not white or coloured paper with more little drawings around the side like he had been expecting, but a simple, flimsy piece of file paper folded once in the middle. He opened it and began to read the large, well-spaced but smooth writing.

_Ahh, Cobalt, I don't even know what to write...still, you've always known just how eloquent I am. Ha!_

_Everything's normal in Mideel. Mum and Dad are just same as normal. I'm glad I'll not be around to cradle your boosted ego when I say that we're missing you over here! I'll leave that to the SOLDIERs, maybe if all of them banded together they'd be able to hold up your ego. Doubt it, though._

_You can read for yourself what everyone else wanted to say to you. There was a really cute one from baby Stephanie, she was sad when you missed her sixth birthday. I couldn't convince her that the rest of the world needed you more than she did that day._

_I hope that Dad's sword is getting a lot of good use. If not, he says he refuses to ever make you another. Don't tell him this, but honestly, I think he's making excuses. He hasn't made something proper in a few years now; I bet he's losing his touch. Ha!_

_How's Angeal doing? I know you met him, and I met him too, and he is my friend, so tell me! I hope your tutor is treating you nicely, too. And don't hang around that Zack too much! He sounds like he gets you in trouble far too much!_

_...Can you tell? Dad wanted me to add that little bit in. His words, seriously. Mum just says she wants you to make sure to blast the heads off of anyone who even as much as looks at you funny. And as I write this, I can't help thinking that our family is really wonky._

_Sometimes I wonder if I should've left to join SOLDIER and you should've been the one writing letters. Heh, if you show that bit to Angeal, I bet you he'll laugh._

_Anyway, writing this has made me feel all sensitive and stuff. See? That's a real tear, right there. I'll take a breather and go fishing or something, and you can be all fighting stuff and junk._

_I look forward to next I hear from you! Your well-loved twin, Sapphire._

_P.S. Tell me the happy stuff. I don't want to hear the boring military stuff - tell that to your friend Zack. Maybe you'll bore him and he won't be so terrifyingly dangerous to your reputation._

_P.P.S. Yes, we all saw the video. You pathetic sod._

_P.P.P.S Give me that Turk's phone number._

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D'awwh, a real tear. Poor little Saphie! Ohh, and did you find the Doctor Who quote? Either of these two parts, did you see it? Hopefully!

Anyway...thank you, one and all for your reviews! And for everyone who reviews this chapter, I'll tell my Dad 'Happy Birthday' from you! He'll love that. And be a little weirded out by all these names. ;)

SakiWatari: Hey there! Thanks for dropping by! Heh, your review made me laugh. XD

Reminded me _far_ too much of myself, in every way...only I don't go to lectures, I go to classes. Plus, spazzing! Ahh, one of my favourite words. I've lost count of the amount of people I've called a spazz. You aren't one of them, though! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Kyoichi Amaya: AAGGH don't use that word! 'Finally'...psh!

...I can't pull off angry, can I? Don't worry, I kid, I kid, and I understand how annoying it is when there aren't updates for a while (not that I ever thought I'd be the one keeping the other waiting, though!) Glad you enjoyed the chapter!

AnonyMouse: Awesome, right? 'The Readership of the Pixel'...I hope that becomes a trend. That would be so totally epic. I'm just so grateful to WhiteWerefox for inspiring it! :D

Ha! I'm beginning to get the feeling that you are quite fond of one character in particular...anyone else get that feeling? *looks at cast of characters, Merowian raises his hand* Yeah, it's that one.

Aww, and don't be embarrassed! I'm supposed to be the one all embarrassed about all the praise I get! Uh...yeah, why not, let's go with that. ;)

...Um, I'm going to take this as a compliment on all the _drama angst scary drama scary intense_ _stuff_ I've been absolutely brilliant at putting in. And, uh, yeah, you spotted the Doctor Who reference-she hopped in the TARDIS and got a letter...no, that's _quite_ wrong. In actual fact, she's just a smart little bunny! And yeah, you bet that creepy-staring-Turkey's gonna be stalking her! You just wait...some crazy stuff's going down over the next few chapters. You'll love chapter 14-well, I will, anyway. ;)

...We got frost in April, but no snow. You know what I say to you getting snow? Ha ha! And, once again, loving your descriptions. And I _will_ be using that nickname for Genesis at some point. And who do we know gives silly nicknames? *Merowian raises his hand again* Ya, you do.

Hee hee! I'm hoping that 'haystacking' will spread so much that people won't even look at you twice for saying it! You know. Just natural, to say haystack. ;)

Really? Oops... And I like that deal! Best keep updating then! *salutes* :D

And yeah, you'll have that chapter 3 of Saphie's Shenanigans to look forward to at some point in the next little while. But just telling you now; my first exam is in, like, two weeks, and I have them until late June. Sorry in advance, if I'm a little sidetracked over this month and the next. Just keep reading the first twelve chapters, and I'll update in no time! XD


	13. High Stakes and Bargaining Chips

AHHH! OH MY GOODNESS! AHH! I...saw...

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

...I...saw...The Hobbit! And, oh wow, it was amazing. Ha! All the dwarves, literally ALL of them, crack me up. I can't wait 'til December, when me and my buddy go see the second one. It _will_ come out then. I _will_ make sure of it. Someone will have to suffer if it doesn't. Hopefully Legolas will be in the next one... ;)

I also saw the movie I've wanted to see since I first saw an advert for it; the Life of Pi. Wow. It was gorgeous. But the poor zebra! I love hyenas, don't get me wrong, they giggle just as much as I do. But that one was a meanie! Nice one, Mr Parker, for solving that! :D

And for the last age or two, I've been playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope for PS3, and just finished it a couple weeks ago...you know, in my revision time. But it was SO awesome! No offense to the game, the ending was actually fairly predictable; no spoilers, but...I guessed correctly what was going to happen on Nox Obscurus in the long cutscene before we went there. I had no idea for hours, because it took so LONG to get through the place (especially since it jammed after beating the Forsaken Beast-GAH!) but I was laughing through the very _dramatic_ and very _sad_ ending. Well, not _very_ sad, but still...

I even knew, seeing Arumat for the first time, that he'd be a companion later. But _aahhhh_ he's awesome. Um...for future reference...? Would you consider reading, if I wrote a story for it? Even without knowing the game, or the characters (because I know it's not _nearly_ as popular as THIS particular game) would you guys consider reading based on nothing but how I've written this story? Perhaps I'm a little ambitious, considering I'm on the 13th chapter of my first story...Just saying. I could do with some ego-boosting; I have just spent the last two months failing exams, after all. What do you think?

Anyway, time to get down to the _biz_. Exams...well, they're not _actually_ over-but I couldn't leave you guys for another minute! I'm kind-of an idiot, because I have an exam tomorrow afternoon, but it's been _ages_! Months, literally! Still, after this update, you won't see a single glimpse of me 'til after next Wednesday, and then it'll probably be, like, Friday, because Wednesday is _bad_...WHO ORGANISES THREE EXAMS FOR ONE DAY, I ASK YOU?! Argh. Don't expect too much of me for a while after this. Quite frankly, if I make it to Wednesday without attempting suicide, you should be grateful. ;)

Enjoy, and remember, it's just another week or so. I may be considerably balder than I was in April, and much less convinced of actually having a job when I'm older, but I'll have a good two months ahead to kill on this story. Summer will last, what, two days? It'll feel like that long until I get back to school, I imagine. Ugh.

Anyway, let's get to the long-awaited update. Hmm...This one's too serious for my tastes. It's unfortunately straight before an extremely fun one that I _love_...so if you're like me and love the wacky, silly stuff, then stick around for chapter 14! ;)

Thanks for the reviews, everybody! My responses are in the usual place. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

13 - High Stakes and Bargaining Chips

The process of me waking up was a gradual and drawn-out process; the first thing I was fully aware of was that I was extremely uncomfortable, lying on my back in some kind of description of a bed, and that was the only information I had for at least two minutes.

I was blinded to what was going on in the room, but whether my eyes were closed or they were covered, I was unsure. All I heard was the occasional high-pitched 'meeh!', and I wasn't interested enough in that to feel like finding out what it was.

A little while later, I discovered that I had a slight headache, and that my knee throbbed with a small amount of pain every time the sound came from my left.

If anything was more painful, it was the thick silences between the sounds. I could hear absolutely _nothing_, and when I use the adjective 'absolutely', you know I'm being serious.

After another short while, I realised that I had previously been all muffled, like my ears needed popping, because the 'meeh's sounded a lot more like precise 'beep's now. I was somewhat more conscious of the sore head, but it didn't bother me that much.

It was around that time that my memory returned, in short, quick flashes; sore knee, angry Genesis, Materia, and then that bright light and the cottony feeling. I vaguely remembered being lifted in a jerky way, put on a wheelie-bed and...no, that was it.

I convinced myself that the dark, quiet chuckle and the mocking drawl I'd heard was a hazy hallucination dreamt up by my subconscious. "Oh, you _do_ have something to hide...I shall have to take a note of that..."

The creepiness of that thought was enough to startle me into the waking world, and my eyes flickered open to the view of a room that was so bland and pure-white and uninteresting that I couldn't help but frown.

Machinery to my left. A white bedside table to my right, with nothing on it. Walls, floor and ceiling all white tiles, not even a window in the room; the artificial light was harsh and made me wince and pull my helmet lower over my eyes. Then I noticed the tube stuck in my left hand.

I felt one of my eyebrows disappear. I didn't like the look of that, not one bit. Weirdly I was still in my Cadet uniform, I noted as I looked at the rest of myself beneath the thin cover (that was little more than a _towel_ in size, but I was less focused on the weirdness of that and more on the total, fantastic relief as I let out a deep sigh of contentment. So I was _safe_.

You know, other than the tube. _That_ still worried me.

I sat in that room for at least fifteen minutes, simply looking around myself and getting a feel for the surroundings - and I can tell you, I was finished with this room after fifteen _seconds_. And yet, when someone finally entered the room, I felt a little let down.

Here I was, hoping for someone like Zack or Will or somebody to enter. I remembered hearing Angeal's voice for a second before I left the waking world, so I was half-hoping that, on this less-than-busy day, he might've stuck around a little. But no, my visitor was actually a ponytailed man in a lab coat, with a pair of exactly circular glasses on his nose that could've made me giggle. Y'know, if I didn't take the rest of his appearance into account; his brow looked permanently furrowed, he had very deep frown lines so that the harsh scowl on his face looked like it was permanent, and even _looking_ at him made me feel a little bit depressed. Honestly, I felt a little sorry for the guy.

"Ah, so you are finally awake," he drawled, and I felt myself flinch just slightly at the harsh undertone. I didn't feel for the guy any longer. The something that was a little pitiful just changed into something that felt sinister.

Warily, I slowly rose a hand to scratched the back of my head, trying to react as much like me as I would if this professor, doctor guy were anyone else. "Yeah, sorry if I took up some of your time...how long was I out?" From the grouchiness of this individual, I felt as though I had done him some great evil, and presumed I had caused an inconvenience with my illness...if you could call it that.

"You were unconscious for about two hours," he informed me curtly, and folded his arms. "I had to be pulled away from my very important experiment in another room in order to look over you and examine you to find the causes of your little _mishap_."

I could feel myself getting more and more uncomfortable by the second, though it _did_ occur to me that I felt right as rain. "I'm sorry...I hope your experiment isn't time-sensitive," I apologised, trying to stir up some proper emotion other than anxiety while doing so and failing.

The professor waved an uncaring hand in my direction. "The experiment will have to wait until tomorrow, so I _thank you_ for _that_," he drawled, making me cringe - with my head ducked, hoping he couldn't see me do the involuntary reaction. "However, I found something fairly interesting that made up for the delay in my experiment."

He sounded like the cat that caught the chocobo right then, only sounding infinitely more ominous. To say it put me on edge would've been an understatement. Eesh...

And then a phrase he had used in a previous sentence stuck out to me; "examine you", when referring to me. Uh-oh. Oh, oh...eep. Very slowly, I looked up at the man, and he had the most terrifying smug expression I had ever seen. I _really_ didn't like that look directed at me, and I really didn't _like_ this guy.

At my glance to him, he slowly nodded, his smile growing. Oh, _Gaia_...this is a bad situation. "...Who are you, out of curiosity?" I enquired, feeling like I'd possibly heard of this man.

"Professor Hojo, Head of Scientific Research." Oh, _geez_. "And, _yes_, I have been made aware of your own little plight."

What did the man _do_ to me while I was out?! I had nothing to say, completely stunned. As soon as anyone got wind of this, I was doomed. Done for. I was _dead_. Plus, I remembered hearing about Hojo once, on the news. From what I could tell, he was like the creepy old grandpa no one really wants around but has to keep around...because it's Christmas, or because he has something to do with making the rest of the company...I mean family, keep running.

Said old grandpa seemed to be enjoying my mortification. "So? What is it you are going to do now?"

I wrung my hands together, feeling incredibly nervous. My situation got a million times worse in the last five minutes. This man now held my life in his hands, and as a Professor renowned for having no boundaries to his research at _all_, the only reason he would let me live now and keep quiet was if he got something massive in return, something I could give him.

Everything, and I mean _everything_ I had to give that this man would be interested in, I did _not_ want him to have. But on the other hand, I had grown to like living, and if Hojo blabbed then there was no hope of me continuing that.

So, with my head bowed, and with misery and disgust at myself, I enquired, "What is it you want?"

The Professor let out a delighted sound, something that made me look up at him, cursing myself for his very smug grin. "With people like you, all I get to do is give the SOLDIER treatment, and very little else unless the subject dies and I get to experiment on their corpse. I find myself realising that I have not yet experimented on a living, ordinary, boring SOLDIER. As far as I expected, once the treatment was administered, that person had little else to give to science.

"Only recently, I have made a discovery that with ordinary SOLDIERs, like you will become, comes some unexplored potential with the mixing of a new substance I discovered recently. Once you fulfil your pathetic dream and become SOLDIER, I want you to give yourself up to the Department of Science and Research, where you will have the honour of being experimented on by me."

_Ugh_. This was _not_ good.

That was my immediate thought, and a second later, I berated myself for sounding so lackadaisical - I intended to sound serious on the completely serious topic and managed to completely fail at it. I felt like I had done that at least once before, and it took me a little while to remember; it was when I was apologising to Genesis about the Materia. Not like it mattered right now.

These circumstances were not ones I wanted to be in. Why? Why did I have to be bored on one of Shinra's best days? Why did Genesis have to have it in for me? Why did I ever think that using a _M__ateria_ would be a good idea?

This was a bad place to be, and there was very little I could do about it. I was going to die now, or become an experiment in a short while. There was only one thing I could think of doing.

_Push my luck_!

"...So? What will it be, _girl_?" he demanded to know, his head uncomfortably close to me as he bent over to hiss the words.

I looked to the ceiling with a tiny smile. "My dream isn't to become SOLDIER; it's to become First Class. When I reach First Class, you can blackmail me into coming straight here," I told him, hopes high. Hojo looked severely put-out, but contemplative.

"I suppose a First Class SOLDIER would have greater potential, but how do I know you'll ever reach that stage? And what if you die before ever getting there?" he sceptically replied, folding his arms in front of his chest.

"I can't do anything for you if I die," I admitted sheepishly, undeterred by his sharp look to me. "But I can practically guarantee that I will reach First Class. The only reason I'm here is because Genesis Rhapsodos is tutoring me personally, and he's determined to make me advance as fast as I can."

_Gaia_, I felt sick to my stomach. It felt like I was trying to auction off a piece of meat, and _me_ as the meat. Yet as ill as it made me feel, it seemed to work; Hojo's eyes gleamed with this new opportunity. "I suppose we have a deal. You had better get back to training then."

Without a second word, he threw back my covers and gestured me out of the bed by wildly flapping his hands in my direction. I gave the Professor a confused look, but swung my legs over the side of the bed anyway. "I'm well already? I'm free to go?" I asked, taken aback. And here I was, thinking I'd have to be kept in longer for more tests and whatnot. Wasn't that the way things usually went down?

"Of course! You have training to get back to, and I have experiments to run! I care not for your wellbeing at the moment!" the demented old man replied enthusiastically, conjuring up a clipboard from nowhere and beginning to scribble.

I looked down at myself, still in my Cadet uniform, still with the tube sticking out of my hand.

I called for the Professor's attention, and he irately demanded, "What? What is it?" I pointed to my hand, and without a moment for me to get my head around it, the careless scientist yanked the tube from my hand.

I gasped at the sharp stab of pain, and held my hand to my chest for a few moments, before looking down to examine it closely. To my surprise, it didn't bleed at all. It left a slightly puffy-looking red mark around the small indented scar of the needle having pierced my skin.

Hojo reached into his white coat, and pulled out a few white band aids from one of the many pockets, before tossing them at me. I caught a couple. "Get out of my lab, and return when you have something to offer me," he drawled, spinning and striding away, leaving me standing in the room with a blank expression and a fist full of band aids.

Yet again, I felt a little bit woozy and ill, but I brushed it off as being a placebo from the hospital smell of chemicals always associated with illness. I let loose a yawn, feeling considerably worn down and miserable, and departed from the room. (I hadn't yet decided whether to associate it more with a ward or hospital room, or with a laboratory.)

I then decided it was more like a hospital ward, as I emerged into a larger room with eight beds against the walls spread equally apart with machines next to them. The sickly feeling got a little worse, but I brushed it off, and fled out what I believed was the door.

I say that, because when the automatic door slid open as I charged out through it, I ran head-first into another sturdy, wall-like structure that made me fall back onto my backside. As an instinctive reaction, my fingers flew to my helmet to self-consciously pull it down further over my eyes, I sat up a little more properly, and looked up at the wall that had let out a quiet "Uh!" when I made contact with it.

Sure enough, the tails of the red coat soared majestically through the air above my head as my injury-causing teacher swirled to glare at whatever _cur_ had accidentally ran into the back of him as he stood in the doorway of a closed door.

"Would you be-" I heard him begin to warn in a hiss, but he quickly cut himself off as he got a good look at me. Sitting up, gazing at him with my head tilted to the side with a slightly peaked eyebrow, and a small smile playing on the corner of my mouth. "...Well, it's about time, Amell," he finally righted himself enough to say, and I rolled my eyes; only to catch the sight of Angeal stepping up next to him with a small smile, holding out his muscled arm and open hand in my direction.

With a single moment of hesitation - I strongly expected Genesis to push me back down again, given his aversion to helping me up - I grabbed a hold of the gloved hand that had offered itself and felt a little unbalanced as Angeal overcompensated and yanked me up with such force that I came close to falling forward onto my face.

Angeal rested a hand on my shoulder as if to steady me. "Watch it there, Blue!" he teased lightly, "I should think you're injured enough." He clapped me on the shoulder in his version of a farewell, sent a small look to Genesis (one I presumed to mean 'see you later') and walked back in the direction he had appeared from. I looked down that corridor far enough to catch what I thought _must've_ been a trick of the terrible lighting down the corridor, because it looked a lot like the ends of long silver hair floating and disappearing around a corner...I knew it was an illusion, after all, what business did General Sephiroth have down here anyway?

"You're off your crutches." I was knocked out of my thoughts at Genesis' rough observation, and I glanced up to him quickly. The Commander was wearing a guarded expression, looking down at me with his mouth a thin line and his brow low over his eyes.

I didn't really know what 'mood' this was supposed to be, but I felt wrong a second later for judging him by his moods, and grinned at him. With the simple distraction of a couple of people I could enjoy the company of while still being scared out of my wits, I had forgotten everything I had experienced not fifteen minutes ago. So, I shrugged in a carefree manner. "Say what you will about the Shinra Company nowadays, but you can't knock their healthcare. I've never had as painful an injury as that which cleared up so quickly..." I could see the redhead's expression darkening, and realised what I had done wrong and quickly corrected myself, "...but, to be fair, it was just sprained, nothing too serious."

For a short while the Commander kept his frown, so I assumed I had failed when I tried to brush off the injury he had given me as not too bad. A second later, and only due to me looking very carefully at his expression, he looked to suddenly be ever-so-slightly surprised by something, and then I could see gears beginning to turn in his head as he began to think through some sort of problem. Then - and I couldn't help grinning at this - he gave the slightest smile. A tiny quirk on the side of his mouth that told me that I had actually done good this time. Whew!

It was dangerous though, predicting that he might actually be _feeling bad_ about causing...all this. He injured my knee, and he gave me the Materia, which I obviously accidentally tried to use to heal said injury. But I had heard what he had said to me as I fell into unconsciousness after the 'Materia incident', and he had seemed genuinely concerned. If only a little. And if only because I was his student.

A second later, I came back into reality to that persistent frown being back on his face, and he began to speak. "I remember you telling me that you weren't going to receive a letter from your relatives," he reminded me, and I, trying to push down a small grin, scratched the back of my head.

"I did say that," I confirmed, and cleared my throat, trying not to sound so excited. "Why do you tell me that now?"

The Commander reached a hand inside his red leather jacket, and in an elegant move, pulled out the envelope and held it out to me. I accepted it with all eagerness, examining the envelope I had taken care to write after my encounter with Reno and left outside my apartment door.

I figured that one of the guys had been leaving, noticed it on the floor and delivered it down to reception. I turned the envelope over, pretending to be interested in all the little notes I had scribbled, and looked up at Genesis; he was watching me like a bird of prey its dinner. I clutched the envelope to my chest, hoping it would look like I was holding it like a lifeline. "Thank you, Sir," I gave my gratitude, grinning.

After a small, but noticeable hesitation (this was, after all, _clearly_ my day for examining the Commander carefully) the man frowned, and I felt my good humour disappear. "I would have left it beside you in there, but anyone who's anyone here doesn't want anything personal near them when Professor Hojo's around," he sneered, folding his arms.

My expression didn't change, only faltered somewhat, but I felt much worse than my small smile would lead to believe. I had done something wrong, and for the life of me, couldn't figure it out. "Well, I appreciate it," I assured him with a nod, and after a tiny pause, enquired, "Did you get it for me, Sir?"

The Commander tensed up yet again when I spoke, and I grimaced, knowing I had done something wrong _again_. Talking to this man was like traversing through a minefield; utterly impossible to do without at least one explosion! "Angeal got it," he abruptly informed me, and turned, evidently moving to leave. "And you shouldn't be so doubtful of your family, Cadet. They love you just as much as you'd expect any family should love their son."

The redhead disappeared around a corner, and I looked to the floor, scuffing my boot on the metal. The envelope was clenched tightly in my hands, my knuckles turning white from the pressure. I slammed my eyes closed as firmly as I could, and gritted my teeth in a similar fashion.

Left alone as I was, I could finally accept and face it, that this was a _stupid idea_. If I had done even the slightest bit of research before jumping head first into a situation I knew nothing about, then everything would be absolutely hunky-dory. I wouldn't have to deal with Genesis and his inscrutable 'moods', I wouldn't constantly feel the need to prove myself every second of every day, I wouldn't be getting injuries of this severity...

And I suddenly realised that all these problems pertained to Genesis, in some form or another, and I froze - because that thought path was a bad road to go down.

Common sense would dictate that because I was struggling with all these problems and their core was Genesis, I should probably find a way to cut him out of my life at Shinra...even as impossible as it seemed. Dealing with the man was too stressful, and was giving me such a struggle in living here.

...But, as much as I hated to admit it, this was starting to sound like a really terrible romance novel. _Ick_.

As instantly as I thought that, of course, an image of Genesis that was far too exaggerated and flattering popped right into my head, complete with a sunset, romantic violin music in the background, a light breeze ruffling his hair in such a perfect way, his eyes bright and mouth smiling as he approached...

I couldn't help the giggle, but clamped a hand over my mouth to stop any more, and to cover the red-hot blush that had stained my cheeks as I heard someone's footsteps echoing down the corridor in my direction.

Sure enough, around the same corner he had left from, Genesis reappeared. He looked less annoyed and actually quite content, though he had a mocking look of impatience as he tapped his foot against the floor and looked to the ceiling. "Are you coming?" he asked sharply, looking down to examine me carefully. "You haven't the best directional skills, we all know this Amell, so I presumed you'd be following me out...but no, I have to turn around and fetch you. Hurry up!"

Without a second thought, I ran for my teacher, ignoring the twinge in my knee in preference to focusing all my attention on getting rid of the blush.

* * *

Genesis felt as though he had reverted back to childhood. Back to days when he did something stupid and considered the consequences as they came. Back when, for a time, he was incapable of making a choice without being completely racked with indecision before. Back to a time that allowed him to feel guilt instead of condescension for causing another person unnecessary pain that they were incapable of avoiding.

The red-haired Commander felt lost, and his new student Cadet was the only logical explanation for this drastic change.

He and his two friends had laughed over Cobalt's very personal letter, and Genesis (and by the looks of him, Sephiroth too) had been astonished by the tear stain the girl had joked about and drawn an arrow to. The man in the red coat had been feeling guilty over managing to land his student in Hojo's lab, but as he read that letter, the truth had really hit home.

When his student had told him that he wasn't expecting a letter, despite his loving parents and sister (and the entire town, in addition) Genesis had felt a feeling of camaraderie between them, believing that for one, idiotic moment, he finally had someone to share his opinion, even if only slightly, about this terrible day. And even if it seemed small and insignificant, Letter days made Genesis feel somewhat alone; he received letters, but the fake sentimentality behind their professionally-thought-out words made him furious.

And with this new sense of kinship, he had completely screwed the poor boy over. Genesis' irritation made Cobalt anxious, which instilled more frustration in Genesis. And while Genesis crouched over and tried to rouse the peaceful and ghastly white teenager, Angeal having run off to seek medical assistance with the envelope clutched in his hand, he felt true and proper guilt for the first time in months, years.

Sitting outside Hojo's lab with Angeal was some kind of terrible torture he hadn't expected to experience...then again, he never expected to be tutoring a Cadet in the first place. But when Angeal explained how it was he'd showed up so suddenly, that Cobalt had received a letter from his twin, the Commander felt another shockingly intense emotion spread through him; not guilt any longer, but betrayal.

Genesis felt quite shocked even to be admitting it himself, but he felt anguished when he heard that. Cobalt had received a letter from home anyway, despite that, and Genesis was alone again. But that feeling passed in a matter of seconds, which was considerably quick. Angeal was probably worried, given that Genesis showed just how angry he could be on his face at all times, and he must've been pretty terrible-looking at that moment.

The feeling had vanished when realisation startled him; he had received a _letter_. His loving family had taken the time to send their son and brother a letter, showing just how much they cared. And Genesis...he had sent their beloved relative straight to the brains and the black heart behind SOLDIER, in a victimised and defenceless state.

If Hojo decided that he could use a simple little Cadet for some new, pointless experiment dreamed up by the mad scientist, Genesis had done more than condemn Cobalt to this torture; but his adoring twin sister and two parents back home who clearly cared for him in a huge way, they'd never be the same.

After what felt like a long time of waiting, during which Genesis had rose to his feet and begun to pace in front of the door, Sephiroth suddenly leapt to his own feet, and walked off. With no explanation at all to give for his departure, Angeal and Genesis shared a confused look as the powerful General swiftly strode away.

And it could only have been seconds after when Cobalt emerged from the room, and as a surprise to both First Class SOLDIERs, he looked none the worse for wear. As a matter of fact, the only thing different about him now than that morning was that he was off the crutches, proving that the child had a shocking amount of potential in many aspects of SOLDIER, as raw and untrained as some of those sections could be.

Because, really, as if Hojo would _waste_ his time with caring for the sick or injured. The only reason the kiddie was allowed in here was likely down to one of two things; either because, as the student of a First Class Commander he was due more respect and attention than others, or because it seemed that his problem was to do with a strange reaction to Materia.

The blue-topped Cadet could beat around the bush and compliment Shinra's medical care as much as it pleased him, but the simple fact remained; the only person who could've and would've plausibly healed that injury in this time was himself.

Genesis was planning on telling the young Cadet this - it seemed like the kiddie needed as much support as he could find from anywhere - but with the kiddie's mention of it being such a serious injury, the Commander began to berate himself yet again, and neglected to comment on the boy's ability.

After that, he had handed the boy his letter from home; Angeal, for some reason only known to him, had decided it was in the best interest of everyone if Genesis gave him the letter as opposed to Angeal. And they all knew that leaving it beside the boy's bed wasn't an option; likely Hojo would read it, decide it was idiotic and toss it in the bin before Cobalt even knew it was there.

Genesis never said he was good at reading peoples' reactions to things. At best, despite everything taught in Cadet training, if he focused as intently as he could on expressions and posture then he could sometimes see if someone was nervous, or lying, or genuine.

(He vaguely remembered a tutor saying that if he focused half as much on his lessons as he did on LOVELESS, had Genesis any interest in becoming a Turk he would've made a better one than the famous Vincent Valentine. That view bothered Genesis in no huge way whatsoever that would convince him to ultimately change his focus from LOVELESS.)

Anyway, as Genesis was feeling particularly curious of the Cadet, he honed his efforts into analysing Cobalt's reaction; and to be fair, it seemed quite odd. He looked at the envelope with no sense of surprise, and to be frank, seemed about as excited about the letter as Genesis had been about his own. In actual fact, the Cadet seemed more interested in _Genesis'_ reaction to it, and after a short while, he thanked the Commander with a grin.

Genesis stiffened at the boy's words. "_Thank you, Sir._" It seemed as though Cobalt had a real knack for saying exactly the _wrong_ words at any given time. Genesis, wanting to strike up an easygoing conversation with intentions of putting an end to all the tension and awkwardness between the two, was racked with indecision at the discovery that the kiddie still could not address him by his name.

Frustrated by this, his answers were clipped and lacking any real emotion. And when the boy tentatively asked whether it was he who retrieved Cobalt's letter, adding insult to injury with another repetition of the formal address, Genesis was harsh with his comments, and still irritated and confused about his reaction to his letter, began to walk.

His strides were shorter than usual, and slower, to suggest to the boy that he should follow. Feeling annoyed at the Cadet, he failed to mention that Cobalt should follow, and it was only after he'd put some distance between them that he discovered his student was nowhere in sight.

And here he was, thinking that the kid was observant. The redhead leant against a wall, and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a loud breath.

Looking at the uninteresting metallic ceiling, in this unexpected moment of tranquillity, the First Class SOLDIER decided to sort through his jumble of thoughts, given that it was unlikely Cobalt was going anywhere.

For the life of him, he could not understand the boy. Genesis knew that, given that he was a First Class, his student would feel more comfortable with his training if he felt comfortable with the teacher. The redhead had offered him the opportunity to use his name rather than the proper "Sir" but Cobalt seemed adamant in his refusal to use first name basis.

And yet, for some reason (and despite every single one of the rest of the Cadet's many shortcomings) there was nothing about Cobalt that irritated him more. Genesis didn't understand it himself.

Other than that, the other thing that he found stuck with him more than other factors was the helmet that he hadn't been seen without. It seemed strange that, even when leaving a laboratory after sustaining a fairly serious condition and injury, the helmet was no farther from his head than it had been before he'd gone in, pasty-faced and shaking and unconscious.

Before the SOLDIER could even consider pondering more on the curiousness of these affairs, a thought popped into his head unbidden; _well, how have you been acting?_

He had wanted the Cadet to be more comfortable, so had told him to address him as Genesis, even despite that the Commander's ego insisted that he should be addressed by his well-earned title. Another part of him however, the part that hated his parents and his upbringing, insisted that he'd never feel comfortable with training such an...interesting Cadet while he was addressing him 'properly'. But what had he done to allow the Cadet to feel more comfortable with him? So far, Genesis had done nothing but push the poor unsuspecting boy too far in too many ways, making him deal with far more than should be expected of him as a simple new recruit and Cadet.

And though it hurt Genesis' pride to admit it to himself, he could only describe his actions of this day towards his student as _childish_.

So, he spun on his heels and strode back to where he had left the boy.

* * *

Hoo, boy, you didn't see that one coming! I know, because, I didn't. I hope you realise that more than half the stuff I do is random nonsense that comes to me as I type, completely unplanned. It's why this story is so weird. Still, seems to be working out so far! XD

Kyoichi Amaya: Yup yup, 'busy' is my middle name. Ha! Naw, it's 'the'. ;)

Thanks for the luck-wishing! I appreciate it very much, though they probably all went _rubbish_. And thanks for the review! Hope you liked this chapter!

InsaneNinja: D'awwh, there's no need to be frustrated by the silly little thing I shoved in! Heh, though I'm loving all the suggestions you're giving, I'm afraid to say that you were wrong. Sorry about that!

You're probably just like me, and not liking the 11th Doctor that much, but AnonyMouse actually got it. 'Don't ever play games with me. Don't ever, ever think you're capable of that' was (in my opinion) the most epic line from 11 _ever_, in...the astronaut in Lake Silencio one? I think so. He was all annoyed that his companions were keeping secrets from him and stuff; River, Rory and Amy were with him in the TARDIS. Sorry you didn't get it, but I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! Despite all your aggro. XD

AnonyMouse: ...Yup, nice job! You got the quote, you crazy, awesome person! Thanks for the comment-I just put it in because I thought it sounded epic, and it really suited what was going on. But now...I shall have to think up some kind of award for you finding that...This might take some time. Uh, any suggestions? Or should I just reward you with a chapter? Uh, this one? :D

Ha! Yeah, I loved writing that bit. 'Little ball of magic-y-ness'! I could just easily picture Genesis doing that; '_Hmm, should I give it to him? Shouldn't I? Oh, why not?!_' Plus, yeah, I get the feeling that he's quick to 'fly off the handle'. Not that I know his character very well, or _any_ character...but hey, I'm learning!

Naw, really? You like Merowian? That really hasn't come across before now. But you can't take him! I need him to shove in my story at random intervals when things aren't weird enough for Sapphire! Uh...though I don't see him showing up for a while...sorry. You can have him, temporarily. XD

Heh heh, yeah, I'm _good_ at all that evil scary drama scary intense drama scary drama stuff, huh? Sca-_ree_. ;)

You bet I did! Heh, that was awesome. And thanks for understanding how annoying it is to put off something so fun! Gah! Oh, and don't worry about the late review thing. It was...fine. You..._didn't_ have me terrified, _nope_! *eye twitches* But yeah, I'm not a 'madam'. At the rate I'm maturing, you should probably go _back_ a thousand years before I'm respectable enough. But yeah, doesn't mean I won't agree! *returns the hand-shake* See, now it's your turn to make good on that! :D

Ha, and thank you for the review(s?) of Shenanigans. Uh, yeah, you're my buddy! And do you think I _wouldn't_ come back? I'll probably have lengthy breaks every now and again, when things get even more busy, or I get even less responsible, but I like to think I'll come back every once in a while. Anyway, see you for chapter 14!


	14. Fancy Footwork

Aww, YEAH! The holidays took their time, but they're here now!

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

All I can say is, thank goodness the rain cleared up for Saturday. I mean, rain was fun for crazy golf last week (there was no-one else there, so we waited out the showers in little cabins on the holes. I got a hole-in-one on the 16th hole!) but weather needs to be good for a BBQ. Ahh, cheesecake is _tasty_...but the last few days I've been dead. Literally. We played badminton for a while, and tossed around a frisbee for the better part of three hours, and I think I pulled a few muscles...or ALL of them. The only time I'm not in pain is when I'm sitting down, and even then my throwing arm is giving me bother! My right leg is sore, my left leg is in constant agony, and I have a staircase in my house. It's BAAAAD. XD

Back to the usual routine, though-I saw Despicable Me! Ha, it was awesome. I love the little blonde girl. Can't even remember her name-I know the other two are Margo and Agnes, but her's completely escaped me. Gru was fantastic though. Hee hee! :D

Animal Crossing came! Ooh, my town is flourishing, and there's loads of new fruit trees growing-including a Perfect Apple one! Unfortunately, I built my house in a fairly secluded area, and then two new people moved in-Jacques, and then Fuschia-and set up camp right beside and behind me. I was raging, and I wanted to hate them, but those two are pretty awesome. There's no one I don't really like, actually; well, Pancetti's a little annoying, and her and Bonbon are forever waging wars against each other, so she's the only one that bugs me at all.

Oh, I don't think I properly mentioned it; AnonyMouse got the Doctor Who quote in chapter 12! Congrats to you, my friend, and I've thought of something I can award you with from your suggestions-check out the reply to your review, and tell me if you like it!

Ooh, here we have chapter 14! After the relatively creepy previous chapter, this one hopefully launches us straight back into my usual way of things in quite a large way. Hope you guys enjoy it! I had fun with this one. ;)

* * *

14 - Fancy Footwork

"_It is not our intention to kill the girl. Interrogate her as you will, but she must not die. She is vital to future events._"

Intense white light catapulted into my vision, and my eyelids slammed shut to protect my sensitive eyes. The bag over my head had been removed in a swift and rough move, and I had just gotten used to the darkness when the light suddenly burned my eyes.

I blinked rapidly for a few moments, and as my eyes gradually got used to the light, I started making out fuzzy blobs of different shapes and colours, which transitioned slowly to allow me to examine the man standing opposite me, and the room around me.

The room was dirty and damp, and the walls were grey with telltale dark red stains. If the sight wasn't enough, the smell was plenty; that same coppery smell hung over the room permanently, though I had been here long enough, ropes tying my wrists and ankles to the chair in such a position that I couldn't even get remotely comfortable, that I hardly noticed the smell of gore any longer.

There was no furniture in the room other than the chair I was sitting on; it was completely bare. The sources of the previously-blinding light were the window, the sun right outside and glaring at me, and a pointlessly-switched-on tall lamp standing at my right side, at the centre of the right wall.

Standing opposite me was a man that looked alarmingly familiar. He stood stiffly, posture straight and uncomfortable which emphasised his towering height and broad chest and shoulders, and the dark skin of his head was completely shaved, save for a touch of facial hair; the hairless skin shone in the sunlight, along with his black sunglasses perched on his nose. He wore a perfect black suit and tie, and clutched a heart-stopping huge gun in his hands, looking very much like he knew exactly how to use it.

The man turned his back on me, knowing that I was helpless and could do nothing at present, and began to speak to someone under his breath into some sort of gadget. I tried to listen as I gathered my bearings, but he was too quiet for me to have any hope of making out what he was saying, so I refocused my efforts into trying to figure out how this man was so familiar.

"You're in a very dangerous position here, girl," he gruffly started our conversation just as it sunk in who this man was.

_Oh, Gaia. Oh, geez...it's that, it's that Turk...the one that hangs out with Reno all the time-wait, so the TURKS are behind this? Oh Gaia, I'm so screwed..._

...But surely this was a tad extreme, even for Turks? Didn't they make sure they were always under the radar, no public dealies? This was public! Plus, they had never shown this drastic an interest in me; there was awkward deliberate encounters in the Shinra cafeteria, and then there was tackling and kidnapping a teenage girl on the streets of Midgar. The world practically revolves around Midgar, so on what demented planet was _this_ a _good_ idea?

I didn't reply to his statement, and shifted in my chains. "You're a Turk, aren't you? Rude, isn't it? My brother told me how he first met you, do you remember?" The mind both inherited from and trained by my mother was shoving everything I knew at me, and telling me that this wasn't the Rude I knew of. So, to prove whether it was him or not...

The man shifted his gun slightly in discomfort, and his brow furrowed. "That must've been easy to imagine. Given the solid proof of the video that everyone's seen, yes?" _Bingo_. Advantage to me; this wasn't Rude. After all, he seemed the type to remember lots; and I'd go so far as to say he'd remember seeing a few lost-looking Cadets wandering around the Turks floor a few weeks ago, one of them being me.

Cautiously, I allowed my eyes to slightly narrow, hoping it would be seen as an inquisitive action and not a threatening one. "What are you implying?" I enquired a second later, hoping that I sounded more like a pseudo-confident victim instead of the person they were _actually_ looking for.

The man who looked like Rude relaxed in a tiny way, the massive gun in his hands lowering so it was parallel to the floor instead of being held up stiffly like previously. "When people enter Shinra, their history and their entire background is dug up and recorded in the Shinra database. Everyone who exists has records, even if it's nothing but a birth certificate. If they don't, they either do not exist, or they have deliberately destroyed all evidence pertaining to their existence. Either way, they are an enemy of Gaia, a criminal and a terrorist."

...For intending to impersonate Rude, he wasn't very convincing. I had never once heard Rude talk to me, and I had encountered him around five or six times now, in the weeks since I had joined Shinra I only heard him talk _once_, to Reno in a lift. I didn't expect him to blab on this much if he was giving a _speech_, and yet he was conducting some sort of interrogation, so the whole point was that _I_ would be the one talking.

"As the criminal's sister, and considering that there are no records of you _either_, it's easy to surmise that you are cohorts in this scheme. Whatever it is you are planning, we have intentions of capturing you and your brother, to find out just why you desire there to be absolutely _no_ background information on either of you. And if you and your brother cooperate, then it will be easy and painless."

As the daughter of a once-Turk, I knew what that meant. They'd wring me like a towel for information and answers to questions, and then they'd kill me and toss me in the same place everyone accused of opposing Shinra ended up.

_...tick..._

But these weren't the Turks...agh, my head! What was going on?!

_...tick...tick..._

"So..." he trailed off, and made a show of shifting the gun in his hands. _tick_. I gulped as silently as I could. "What will it be?"

_...tick...Click!_

My eyes slammed shut in anticipation, and once again, thanks to my mother - fast instinctive reaction time - I turned my face in the opposite direction.

_...BOOM!_

...

"D'ya know what?" Zack started a conversation, happily munching on some sort of sugary treat I'd never heard of that was apparently good for someone's breakfast. Somehow, I thought that should be for anyone _but_ Mr Hyperactive himself. "I don't like that I don't have a nickname."

With one hand rubbing my eyes and another keeping it propped up with a fist at my temple, I wasn't exactly the image of happiness this morning. "Really." I didn't even try to phrase it as a question, or make myself sound interested. Too little sleep...

And Zack was so enthusiastic... "Yes! _Hello_?! Coby! There's you, and there's Will, and Ash, and plain, boring old Zack! Argh, it's so _dull_!"

Why must I be cursed to have these stupid dreams? And how come _Zack_ was so awake? "Zack's a cool name. Our names are long and rubbish, which is why we get nicknames, but you don't need one, because your name is short and awesome."

I rested my head on my hands and tried to make myself comfortable enough to sleep right there in the cafeteria. My dark-haired friend looked at me carefully for a second, and took another bite. "Maybe...but I'd still like a nickname."

"Hmm..."

The boy had no right to be so perky when I was so sleepy. I was content enough to sleep, despite my dream, but it seemed as though Zack was (to my complete shock) something of a light sleeper; he came and roused me, the well-meaning little puppy-dog he is.

"Well, I always call you a puppy-dog," I mumbled now when I thought of it, but tried to keep it out of his earshot, and peeked at him. One of his eyebrows had made a break for freedom, and was much higher than the other, but I expected him to have a more violent reaction, so I supposed he hadn't heard. I shrugged, and continued, "But seeing as you're so sad about it, I'll have to think something up. Just...not right now, it's far too early."

It was five in the morning, or close to it, and Zack had awoken me over fifteen minutes ago. After realising I wasn't getting anymore shuteye, considering Zack was sitting staring at me trying to do so from the kitchen and striking up unnecessary conversational paths, we decided that we might as well get some breakfast.

I figured that Zack didn't try to go back to sleep was because today was a pretty important day. As Cadets, all of our time was spent in the Shinra building, being taught all different lessons that would help us out in different ways as we advanced through Shinra. It was so general that Cadet training usually only lasted a few months, maybe about half a year, before every Cadet had either left or had entered into a proper faction or part of Shinra, such as Zack here aiming for SOLDIER. A month was up already; two weeks had passed since my visit to the labs.

Because of the minimal training until SOLDIER, us Cadets were too...terrible, for lack of a better word, to actually be put on any proper missions outside the Shinra building. The only people in Shinra who carried out missions without what were described as 'physical enhancements' were Turks and your basic Infantrymen. Third Class SOLDIERs got patrol missions around some fairly-stable cities and towns, and a proper, but monitored mission for their advancement into Second Class. That...was about as much as I knew in that direction.

But all us Cadets got were the occasional simulation if we were lucky (thank you, Commander Rhapsodos!) and sparring against each other. And, joy of joys, today was the day we would apply what we'd learnt over the past weeks and we'd spend all afternoon sparring with each other.

Naturally, Zack was practically jumping in his seat from the excitement of it all. _Yesterday_ I was the same, but after that dream (and with rumours flying that the leader of the Turks Tseng would be watching our sparring today) I was feeling...less confident.

Right now, it was all I could do to stay awake. And I figured that _wasn't_ a good way to be on such an important day.

"It needs to be something cool," Zack demanded, pitching his hands in front of himself as he tried to envision what he wanted his nickname to be. "Like...Zax. It's edgy, and it's got an 'x' in it, so people know I'm cool like that."

I buried my face in my hand. Something told me that if I could just get partnered up with _this_ dolt, today would go much smoother than I felt right now.

But I just had that bad feeling somewhere in my gut that my unease was not unfounded...

...

"Okay, so this is how today's gonna work, yo." The voice and slang was undeniably Reno, and my whole being just fell apart, with some of me wondering how _Reno_ could've ever got himself the leadership role today. "As you kids are inexperienced and crap in every possible way that would be useful to the company, we - being the smart ones - are sweet enough to consider all _your_ lack of ability when it comes to assessments like this."

Reno stood at the front of the room in the centre; his hands were in his pockets, everything about him looked just as sloppy as usual, and I could tell that Rude, whose head was buried in one of his large, powerful hands, was simply grimacing at his partner's slapdash conduct.

"So, as opposed to putting you up against some unusually unreasonably rubbish Third Class SOLDIER or Infantryman, in which case all of you would become said-person's mop as he would wipe the floor with you, the only way you piddly little Cadets can get a proper scoring for ability is if you fight each other, so you can all be at the same level."

After all, Reno could swagger and boast as much as it pleased him, but it wasn't just us Cadet's superiors that were supervising. I could just picture Tseng pressing two fingers to his temple, irritated and thinking up some sort of undeniably suitable, outlandish punishment for the immature redhead.

To be fair though, he was considerably farther along than anyone actually in the room (aside from Rude) and would get away with such words. Hopefully not for too long, of course.

The Turk looked down at his watch, and then simply shoved his hand back into his pocket. Us Cadets were silent, out of either fear or respect; both of which I inwardly felt, along with probably half of my peers, Reno didn't deserve.

"Yet again though, we are all very sweet in the way that we allow you to choose your sparring partner. Should be a fair fight, no weapons allowed, yada yada yada..." the redhead made a jabbering gesture with his hand as a puppet, and put his hands on his hips.

It was like someone had flicked a switch; the crowd of teenagers around me and behind me all scattered, holding conversations with others as they chose their partners.

I was just about to find and grab Zack or Ash in the middle of all, until a huge and powerful hand landed hard on my shoulder. And the most terrifying feeling of dread spread through my entire body, like a virus, the root of which was tightly gripping my shoulder. Painfully slowly, I began to turn...

...But I heard his voice before I saw past the smooth metal of his gauntleted hand. "I should very much like to see what you can do," he rumbled to me, his voice low but still with that out-of-place playful, cheerful tone both he and his brother carried. Then, he raised his other hand, and though his striking green eyes bored into me I could tell he wasn't addressing me. He spoke to Reno with a request, "Could I be partnered with Cobalt Amell?"

Over Michael Reagan's shoulder I saw Zack staring with a shocked and apologetic look; but not before seeing Michael's twin, Brandon, stood next to a Cadet I vaguely recognised with his own green eyes also riveted to me. If anything, the most unnerving thing was that same predatory grin he and his brother shared, as well as so many other traits.

I faced forward as Reno approached, putting a speculating finger to his chin. "Well, generally the first spar rules make it so Cadets only about the same size as each other fight against each other," he considered, holding up a hand as if to weigh up his option.

As expected, the other raised to hover in the air beside him. I stared with wide eyes at the Turk, and though he wasn't looking at me in preference to pretending to balance out his hands, I mutely tried to show my extreme discomfort with the much taller, more built and much creepier-looking man standing next to me, slightly shaking my head.

"On the other hand," Reno continued playfully, his grin taunting me. I knew it already. He was going to let this happen. "Coby here has been receiving special treatment, what with the SOLDIER tutor and everything. Hmm..." The teasing redhead pretended to weigh up the options, before one hand he had been considering second shot down. "Nope, I'm thinking I'll let this slip. Alright! Has everyone got a partner?"

Wishing the man's assault and inevitable murder of me to come quickly and as painlessly as one could hope, I looked up at Michael carefully. "Why did you pick me? Why not your brother?" I enquired. Michael didn't move, simply stared at me with an extremely serious-looking expression.

"If it bothers you that much, then it is because I have trained with Brandon all my life. One of the reasons we joined was to find new, different people to challenge." His response was simple and made sense, but it didn't take away from the fact that the guy freaked me out to no end.

As Reno seemed to be wrapping up, I carefully watched as Michael's hand dropped from my shoulder, the gauntlets gleaming in the Mako-powered bright lights over our heads. "...Are you going to keep the gauntlets?" I quizzed, and at the look the stoic twin fixed me with, I realised how much of a wimp I sounded today.

Watching his remarkable eyes intently, it was hard for me to not notice him deliberately look over my head for a few moments, before looking back at me. I didn't understand until he rebuked with his own question, "Where is your own weapon?"

I looked to the floor, grimacing as I confided, "Commander Rhapsodos...confiscated it." Unable to stop myself, I looked up at the dark-haired teen, who gave a wolfish grin.

"Well, then," he replied, his knees bending slightly and his hands clenching as they were held up in front of him. It was then I noticed a few other Cadets doing the same as the redhead Turk weaved his way around them to the edge of the room, and quickly loosened myself up into a more comfortable stance. "It seems as though today you will be _dodging_."

I blinked twice, eyes wide. A bell rang. "Uh..." was all I could bring myself to mumble, before Reno announced that the fighting should commence. It was the first time I'd heard the Turk sound genuinely excited for something, and for some reason, it seemed quite morbid to me.

And knowing well that Michael's previous statement was accurate, as without a second's hesitation he launched himself at me and threw a fist, it took everything in me not to run away screaming like a headless Chocobo. I simply jumped backwards to avoid it, taking careful consideration of where I put my feet. After all, one of the first things I noticed when I entered the room was the many various bits and bobs scattered all over the floor. Shinra sure thought of everything, didn't they?

Spatial reasoning told me that at some point I could use that to my advantage, so my Turk-influenced mind stored that information away for future use, as I continued to leap backwards from Michael's kicks and punches. A few times I could feel myself backing into a wall or another pair, so when the dark-haired powerhouse would lunge I would skid around him - and while he got back into position, kick another piece of debris into place. A fairly hefty book, a broken lamp, a cushion...

If I had learnt anything in the past few weeks, it had been two things; one, you could never set up _too_ much to give yourself an advantage, and two, Mum and Dad had taught me a lot more than I first realised.

Though I was still working under the attitude that the less attention I attracted the better (despite that the plan had obviously failed within the first day or two) I didn't really mind that planning in the middle of a battle like this should get me attention. Besides, what were the chances anyone would notice? All I was doing was avoiding Michael and tripping over some of the scattered stuff. But I digress, back to the grand plan.

After about four or five careful dodges around the guy, I noticed that a couple of pairs had stopped and were watching others, and also that Michael's brow was furrowing. He was either getting frustrated, or slightly more worryingly, more determined. His swings were faster, but less precise; though the brute force behind those gauntlets made the last factor null and of no consequence. If he got me a few times, I'd still be down.

And even despite this, I was still somewhat reluctant to attack the guy. I convinced myself it was instinct to run away from the guy who might as well have been a bulldozer, and left it at that, not wanting to think any more on it. Eventually, after a particularly large leap backwards, causing Michael to swing farther and be somewhat off-balance, I leapt forward with a foot outstretched.

My tentativeness proceeded to screw me over. It took me too long, and his other hand grabbed my ankle swinging it back down, knocking me off-balance.

Remember back in 'Situation and Reaction Training', my first time there, with the Turks? Remember when I felt like a yo-yo as Reno spun me and shoved me into the Turk bear-hug?

It was all I could think of as I, unwilling but unable to stop it, was pushed head-first against Michael's raised knee, and punched extremely painfully in my ribs, before being pushed back.

"Aghhh..." I groaned, as agony erupted all down my right side, though my forehead didn't feel as bad as I was expecting. I managed to keep on my feet, though I hunched over for a second to get my breath back. Michael simply waited, and after a second (as the lights in my eyes faded - the head injury seemed to catch up to me for a moment) I looked up at him in amazed speculation.

I saw him shrug. "I'm enjoying this. Hurry up and recover, Cobalt." I snorted at that, loud enough for him to hear, and looked up in furious determination before launching myself at him, my fists and feet a flurry as I tried to stop his own attacks.

It got to the point where my opposition ended up trying to grab for my limbs, so I ambitiously jumped back, landed on my tiptoes on the large book, then leapt forward with a hand on his shoulder and flipped over him, my back to my set-up and to Michael.

Unsurprisingly, Michael simply turned to me, and grabbed my shoulder with a gauntleted hand extremely tightly. To my surprise and utter delight, he used enough pressure and strength to lift me back up over him, and I could tell he was laughing - in his own, quiet way - just as I was, though my hands immediately reached up to grip his gauntlet in what I hoped was an instinctive reaction.

Thankfully, Turks were taught some good disarming tactics.

Michael followed as he flipped me over so he was facing me when he set me down, but I didn't stop there; I used the momentum to dive between his legs, and leapt to my feet fast enough to kick him in the back of his knees.

Pulling the much-too-big gauntlet I had retrieved from my foe on over my right hand, I watched with a Gaia-sized grin as Michael stumbled forward only one pace, that foot getting wedged in a broken lampshade and making the Cadet fall.

I stepped forward, my shoulders shuddering in an attempt to keep back my laughs, as he landed with his chin on the cushion. What could I say? I didn't want to give him a broken nose or anything. He was probably embarrassed enough as it is.

He didn't really seem bothered by it, though I could see the slightest grin betraying him as I helped him to his feet with my right, now gauntleted hand. I was quite content to hand it over after; it kept slipping, and to be honest, it was uncomfortably warm.

Everyone eventually finished up with their sparring, and Zack, Will, Ash and I all joked about our own successes or failures. Ash had finally gotten her well-deserved revenge on Zack for his badly-taken friendliness on our first day, and had delivered a good hit to his arm that would probably bruise, as Zack was content to wail about how he was going to lose it.

Will had been set against Sammy Rief, one of my companions in the first 'Materia Training' class, and considering the spectators as he obviously was, Will won spectacularly. Poor old Sam wasn't too pleased with his exuberance, apparently, so Will had been thinking for the rest of the time what he could do to make it up to the other Cadet. I had a feeling Zack would be losing some of his chocolate stash; after all, it seemed as though the currency amongst us Cadets _was_ chocolate.

Before we left, Reno and Rude approached our group. The redhead's hands were in his trouser pockets, and the rest of him was just as untidy as normal; not that it really bothered me anyway. Without a second glance to me, Reno started up a small conversation with Will, commenting on his spar.

I couldn't hide my confusion then, as _Rude_ asked me a question, "How did you get Reagan on the floor?" His voice was deep and just as I expected it to sound, but the words sent a chill down my spine, as well as the fact that _Rude was talking to me_. So much for keeping a low profile.

Cautiously, I raised a hand to scratch at the back of my head, and carefully and slowly replied, "I was just lucky...I guess." A second later the huge Turk nodded, spun and departed, with Reno suddenly at his side.

I swallowed, and continued on my way.

* * *

The spectators in the other room were discussing at length the ability of the most recent group of Cadets, after all had left the other room, as they watched the playback of the session.

It seemed a little strange to video the teenagers as they duelled each other for the first time, but it was purely because there were only so many people in Shinra willing to grade the Cadets for their fighting ability. Most claimed they had better things to do, and they were probably right.

However, the job was important, and vital to the advancement of Shinra, so it had to be done by appropriate individuals. It was tasked to the sharp eye of the leader of the Turks Tseng, SOLDIER Second Class Cliff Luxor, Wallace Everton and SOLDIER First Class Commander Angeal Hewley.

And though they were asked to do the job, they had their own reasons for studying the up-and-coming Cadets. SOLDIER Luxor and Mr Everton were both there as teachers to the Cadets, with the desire to find out for their own classes where their students could improve. Angeal for the same reason, though also wanting to see if any of the Cadets needed some personal encouragement that he could provide. He was the big softy of SOLDIER, after all, despite his seriousness.

Tseng was always asked to go, given his impeccable ability to read people as testament to his Turk training, and he found that every year the relatively menial task helped him keep focused on his own work; this allowed him the time he needed to unwind between serious 'Turk business' and gave him a break from _hard to read_ people.

This year though, he was looking forward to both parts of his work coming together at the same time.

The four men were speaking calmly and logically about one of the younger, quieter Cadets when the door to the observing room burst open, the man in the doorway with an urgent expression, pointing over his shoulder to the door the Cadets had left through. "How the heck did that blue-haired little twat topple the big guy?!"

Tseng, getting irritated at Reno's insistence on impatience, spoke around the hand rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "If you will sit quietly there and say nothing, I will let you stay for Cadet Amell's performance," he ordered, pointing to a chair in the corner that a scowling Reno collapsed into.

The others in the room shared glances. Each of them had their own opinions of the young, somewhat mysterious boy. Their consideration of the Cadet ranged from mostly disinterested, being Wallace, through the somewhat concerned Cliff to the curious interest of Tseng and the combined curiosity and worry of Angeal. They could all appreciate Reno's boisterous intrigue though; it was obvious that Cobalt had received some proper interest, as Rude followed Reno into the room a second later and stood beside his partner with his arms folded, an inscrutable expression as always on his face.

Given that all four men knew of Reno to some extent, Cobalt and Michael's spar was deliberately skipped over and ignored until everyone else had been done. The redhead knew exactly what was going on, and while he said nothing, he tapped his heeled shoe on the metallic floor enough times that the other five men in the room would be hearing the tapping in the background for the rest of the day.

Cliff set up the monitor to play the video of Michael and Cobalt's faceoff, and thanks to Reno's persistence in wanting to see the video, the room was silent and completely focused on the video to see what sort of magical event would elicit such a reaction from the rarely-impressed Turk.

By the end of it, with the young blue-topped Cadet sniggering as he helped up his fallen foe with Michael's own gauntlet on Cobalt's hand, Cliff let out a small discharge of slightly nervous laughter. "Pretty impressive," he commented vaguely, looking around to see if another comment would be made.

Mr Everton looked genuinely impressed, but somewhat puzzled as well. "If he can use that sword of his half as well as he can fight without, he should probably get into SOLDIER with little trouble...though this is against a lesser-trained individual, and only at Cadet level," the Weapons teacher gave his critical viewpoint.

Angeal, while being conscious of the interest the boy was stirring up, gave his own opinion. "All he was doing there was acting on instinct, there was no actual honed tactics..." The SOLDIER trailed off as he noticed Tseng's thoughtful and intense expression. "He's receiving individual training from a SOLDIER currently, so I'm expecting a big improvement, considering his actions in the opening to the spar was..."

Angeal couldn't think of the appropriate word, so Reno chimed in with "...Appalling." No one in the room could bring themselves to rebuke against the Turk's addition, though Rude shifted his feet.

"I'm not so convinced..." surprisingly, the sceptical Turk leader Tseng was the only one to take Cobalt's performance as more than raw instinct and cowardice.

"Oh, come _on_!" Reno protested exuberantly and immediately, throwing his hands in the air. "The kid was just trying to stay _conscious_. That Michael guy's a bit of a brute...he's like the Rude of the Cadets," he joked, nudging the mentioned Turk in his side. A few raised eyebrows were his only response; Rude didn't react in the least.

Tseng didn't look at the Turk, he simply stared at the paused video with a motion-blurred Cobalt pulling Michael to his feet, his right leg kicking off a broken lampshade as he got to his feet from where his head had hit the - the _cushion_... "Play it again."

Cliff followed through with the Turk's request, and Tseng watched the video even more intently as Cobalt sprawled all over the place, tripping over most of the objects in plain view. Once again, there was a sharp intake of air at the punch to Cobalt's ribs, as Mr Wallace mentioned, "It just gets worse every time you see it, doesn't it?"

His statement was met with a few nods of agreement, and the video was stopped when Michael was in mid-fall, his foot suspended in midair just in front of the lamp.

Tseng drew a few pairs of eyes as he let out a breath of air, leaning back in his chair. "That boy's been trained well...whoever his trainers were," the leader of the Turks surmised, earning some more raised eyebrows.

It being the second time around the video was played, Angeal had spotted and thought he knew what it was Tseng was talking about - but he was reluctant to say anything. A random thought appeared in his head; with this much attention, he wondered how they'd be doing if Sapphire had joined as well like she'd teased she would.

"Play it again," Tseng requested a third play through, but this time he gave some advice that told Angeal that he had been right. "Focus on Amell's feet."

Reno let out a disbelieving snort at Tseng's advice, but after that, nothing was said. In silence, the group of men watched as the implausible young Cadet dodged nimbly around his opponent, while straight after being the picture of clumsiness as he tripped over another piece of junk and kicked it away.

Though he didn't kick the stuff too far, it was enough to make Cliff cover his mouth to stem the laughter as the blue-haired Cadet took the hit, leapt off the first item, kicked Michael forward into the second and allowed him to fall onto the third item. "No way," the Second Class SOLDIER stated simply, shaking his head disbelievingly and laughing.

"That kid's insane," Reno mumbled, his eyes wide, watching as the blue-topped Cadet helped the much bigger-built and taller Michael to his feet, handing over the other boy's weapon as he laughed and started to watch another pair fighting.

Tseng fixed Reno with an expression that would convey boredom. "Why do you think I want to know about his background?" he questioned rhetorically, and Reno shook it off, striding out of the room, as Rude got up to follow a few moments later.

Across the desk, Angeal said nothing, but worried. He knew that the Turks _had_ been showing an interest in the Cadets this year, but he didn't realise how _much_ interest...or how focused that interest was.

The First Class SOLDIER Commander wasn't sure how his close friend, mentor to Cobalt, would take this. _Not well_, he anticipated, with a frown.

* * *

Good old Michael. Getting his face ground into the...cushion. XD

Interesting fact! After posting the chapter first introducing the two twins, I thought about changing their names; it was happy accident that one was called Michael, and after being in a bit of a Prison Break funk, I wanted to change Brandon-the cheerier one-to Michael, and then change the original Michael-the tough one-to Lincoln. They aren't twins, of course, but I'm sure the reference might've made at least one person out there smile. Just thought I'd share. ;)

Thank you all for continuing to be as fantastic as I could ever have hoped for! Receiving all this lovely feedback has me jumping and grinning and being happy in general. Smiles are contagious, everyone! Hopefully I'm making you guys happy as well!

Kyoichi Amaya: Oh, yeah, no doubts about that. Both that he _is_ sweet and that it is _extremely_ deep down. But hey, Saphie seems like the type to consistently work at something; who knows, eventually she might scrape off a few of those 'deep's! ;)

Ah, thank you so much! Those reassurances are just what I need-after all, I've never done something like this before, not with a proper plan, that is! Aww, though if you feel that you aren't capable of writing a story, there's nothing more helpful than advice, practise and a _lot_ of reading. And if that doesn't help, I'm sure you have plenty of talents lying elsewhere that are just itching to be released! Don't be down on yourself, everything will wind up eventually as it's meant to be. :)

AnonyMouse: You bet she does! Still alive and kicking, though barely!

True, true. Don't worry-I don't think Saphie will be in any rush back to see Hojo again any time soon. And yeah, be ecstatic! You have every right to be, until I blame you for the list of U's in August! Hee hee! Jokes. And hey, I'm glad to be your little 'stress release'. Just think of me as one of those little squeezeballs. But, uh, touch my tail and you're dead meat, bud. XD

And hey, don't worry about an accidental extra review! If nothing else, it's bolstering up the numbers! I know I shouldn't, but sometimes when I'm choosing a story to read, I see how many reviews it has...it's not respectable, and I feel a little bad for those kicking around on one sad, little review, so I'm going to make a resolution and check out new stories with few reviews! These people deserve encouragement! Uh, as do I. Stay. Please. :D

*grabs envelope* YAY it's Christmas! D'awwwh, what a lovely little gift. *sends back a pressie* )

Ooh, suggestions for a prize! I'm thinking another chapter of Shenanigans. But _maaaan_, you like a fair few bits of my story, don't you? Ha! Hmm, I may have to think about this...the 'grand reveal' as you put it, will have to wait for quite some time, I'm afraid. I have a plan for telling Ash, but I'm going to put that off for as long as possible, just to tease you guys and make Ash and Ciara as peeved as possible! Heh, I'm terrible. Troubles with her disguise and suspicions and all that, I think, will be left purely to this main story; but we'll see. I'm liking the thought of bringing the Dynamic Doggy Duo o' Doom back again, that's sounding appealing! Hmm, with a special guest appearance from the Turkeys? Sounds like fun. You liking the sound of this, my friend? :D

Toodles, Merowian. See you again, at some point. Perhaps. If he makes it out alive. He has his Materia, he'll be able to fight his way out, if nothing else! XD

Ahh, I do love the way you put things, I really do. And yay! I get a flower shield! Because, ya know, flowers are indestructable and all. Trod on them all you like, and they'll bend under the pressure. Will they give in, though? Oh, yes they will! Yay! Flowers! Anyway...yes, I am vastly proud of you toning down your obsession (though you still had to mention him, huh?) and I'm so pleased that you agree to it only being temporary! He _does_ have prior commitments, you know. To his _creator_.

...See you next time! :D


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